10 Facts about Asanka Gurusinha – Sri Lanka’s world cup hero

10 Facts about Asanka Gurusinha – Sri Lanka’s world cup hero: Asanka Gurusinha, a left-handed batsman from Sri Lanka had a not too distinguished international career but was nevertheless a stable middle order batsman. He was a key member of Sri Lanka’s world cup winning squad of 1996.

On the occasion of his 49th birthday, here are 10 Facts about Asanka Gurusinha – Sri Lanka’s world cup hero:

1. Birth:

Asanka Gurusinha was born on September 16, 1966 at Colombo.

2. Early days:

Gurusinha studied at Isipathana College, before moving on to Nalanda College. He began to play cricket at seven and scored his first hundred at the age of 10.

3. Debut:

Asanka made his First-Class debut against Pakistan Under-23s at Kandy and scored 19 playing for Sri Lanka Under-23s. He scored a century against the same team in his second match. He made his Test debut against Pakistan at Karachi in 1985 and his ODI debut the same year against the same opposition at Hyderabad.

4. First innings of note:

In the 3rd Test of the series against Pakistan in 1986, Gurusinha shared a vital unbroken partnership of 240 with Arjuna Ranatunga to salvage a draw for the hosts. This was at that time the highest Sri Lankan partnership for any wicket and the first time that two Sri Lankan batsmen had batted through the entire day.

5. First Test wicket:

His first Test wicket was none other than the great Indian opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar.

6. Chandigarh knock:

In the one-off Test at Chandigarh in 1990, Sri Lanka got bowled out for 82 with Gurusinha scoring an undefeated 52 runs. He scored 63.41 per cent of the total runs scored, which was third on the list at that point for highest percentage of runs in a team total after Charles Bannerman (67.34 per cent) and Gordon Greenidge (63.50 per cent).

7. Hamilton hundreds:

In the second Test against New Zealand at Hamilton in 1991, he scored hundreds in both innings becoming only the second batsman after Duleep Mendis to hit two centuries in a Test.

8. Dubious distinction:

Gurusinha has the dubious distinction of scoring the third slowest hundred all time taking 535 minutes to score one against Zimbabwe at Harare in 1994-95 season.

9. Melbourne epic:

In the Melbourne Test of 1995 which Sri Lanka lost by 10 wickets, Gurusinha scored a valiant 143 in the second innings in a team total of 307 with the second highest scorer a distant 39.

10. Crowning glory:

Gurusinha played a stellar role in the 1996 World Cup win with three fifties including one in the final against Australia.