Thilan second to score 1000 in 2009

Thilan Samaraweera joined Andrew Strauss in completing 1,000 runs in 2009, but the Sri Lankan is playing only his eighth Test this year as compared to the England captain’s 1,071 runs in 12 matches.

This was in fact Samaraweeraâ€(tm)s second successive one hundred against New Zealand following his splendid knock of 159 in the opening Test match which Sri Lanka won by an innings and 202 runs at the Galle International Stadium.

Overall this was Samaraweera’s fourth century for 2009 as he joined his teammate Tillekeratne Dilshan West Indian Ramnaresh Sarwan and England captain Andrew Strauss who have also made four centuries this year. In fact Samaraweera hammered two double-centuries in a row against Pakistan in February-March before that tour ended abruptly following a terror attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore.

Pakistan middle order batsman Mohammed Yousuf holds the record for most runs in a calendar year having collected a total of 1788 runs from 11 matches in 2006 at an average of 99.33.

Most runs in 2009 (Top 10)
		
Player			Mat	Inn	NO	Runs	HS	Ave

A. Strauss (ENG)	12	21	2	1071	169	56.36
T. Samaraweera (SL)	8	14	2	1058	231	88.16
T. Dilshan (SL)		8	12	1	816	162	74.18
A. Cook (ENG)		12	21	3 	815	160	45.27
M. Clarke (AUS)		9	16	2	768	138	54.85
R. Sarwan (WI)		7	10	0	762	291	76.20
P. Collingwood (ENG)	12	8	1	748	161	44.00
K. Sangakkara (SL)	8	14	1	733	130	56.38 
M. Jayawardena (SL)	8	14	1	725	240	55.76
S. Katich (AUS)		9	16	0	709	122	44.31
 
 Note: Tabulated under player, matches, innings, not outs, runs, highest score and average.