My team-mates called the Dilscoop 'Starfish': Tillakaratne Dilshan

Many cricketers are remembered by moments but former Sri Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan will always be remembered for his ‘patent’ scoop, fondly called the ‘Dilscoop’. Many a times, the Sri Lankan was seen going down on one knee, placing the face of the bat open and guiding the ball towards the third man area. Dilshan in an recent interview with the Indian Express, mentioned that it makes him proud to have a shot named after him in a game that has been played by the Englishmen and Aussies for centuries.

“I seriously didn’t think that the shot will have such an impact on me, or it will be named after me. It makes me proud, and I can tell my children that there’s a shot named after papa. A stroke named after a Sri Lankan in a game played for centuries by the Englishmen and Australians,” Tillakaratne Dilshan told the Indian Express.

“It was a shot that I used to play a lot during my childhood days (in Kalutara) in tennis ball cricket. The boundary behind was shorter and there was a lot of bounce too. But once I started playing proper cricket, I never attempted it even at the nets. Then suddenly it struck me, why don’t I try this shot?” he added.

Dilshan’s team-mates named it the ‘Starfish’, often saying “for you have to have no brains to play a shot like that”. Nobody, fortunately, asked me why I am playing the shot. In Sri Lanka, nobody asks such questions,” he said. “Without tennis ball cricket, there wouldn’t have been the Dilscoop or the slinger [Lasith Malinga’s signature action]. We poor boys are not the products of the system.”

Tillakaratne Dilshan, who ended his international career with a wicket in his last ball, played 330 ODI’s  and 80 T20I matches. He also represented Sri Lanka in 87 Test matches, scoring 5492 runs. he has more than 10,000 runs in ODI cricket.