Chaminda Vaas two eye - catching feats

By A. C. de Silva

Three Sri Lanka cricketers have been featured in the 2007 edition of Guinness Book of World Records. The cricketers are Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya.

Chaminda Vaas' bowling analysis of 8 for 19 against Zimbabwe in Colombo on December 8 in 2001 is the best. Then the best bowling start to a match is also credited to Vaas, who, in the World Cup game against Bangladesh in Pietermasitzburg, South Africa on February 14th in 2003.

On that occasion, Vaas took a hat-trick with the first three balls of the game and then claimed a fourth victim in his opening ever before finishing with 6 for 25. Sri Lanka won that match by 10 wickets.

In Test cricket too, the left-arm paceman Vaas has had tremendous success and in December 2005, when he had the wicket of Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir leg before wicket at the Ferozshah Kotla Stadium in Delhand the umpire's raised finger gave the Lankan bowler immense joy as it signalled his 300th wicket in Test circket.

To claim 300 wickets is no mean achievement for any bowler. Not only does Vaas' accuracy provide the foundation for his success alone, it helps explain some of the phenomenal exploits of Muttiah Muralitharan too over a decade in what will be remembered as one of the great bowling partnerships.

The two were made for each other, both thriving on the suffocation of runs and the slow build-up of pressure. Without Vaas at the other end, Muralitharan would surely have taken far fewer Test wickets.

On Asia's lifeless wickets, Vaas bowls in the same league as Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Kapil Dev. His graduation as a true Test force came in 2001 when he added reverse swing to his armoury and routed the West Indies, aiming a career-best haul of 14 wickets for 191 runs at the SSC grounds. He also swings the new ball, mostly into the right-handers but now he could curve the odd one too, having closely watched long hours of Wasim Akram's footage.

Being such a keen and devoted cricketer, three Sri Lankan players Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara and Chaminda Vaas in April 2004 joined Wisden's 40 selected world top players.

Vaas blew into Test scene in 1994 - that's two years after Muralitharan against Pakistan in Kandy and he became an integral part of the Sri Lanka team then onwards.

After being a member of the history-making World Cup winning team of 1996, Vaas had a memorable 2003 World Cup as he became the bowler with the highest number of wickets in the competition - ahead of Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Shaun Pollock, Javagal Srinath and many others.

In the Guinness Book of Records, Muttiah Muralitharan has been hailed as the bowler with the Most International wickets. He has taken 1,000 international wickets. The off-spinner became the first to reach a four-figure aggregate from Test matches and one-dayers when he took his 1,000th wicket, that of Khaled Mashud of Bangladesh in a Test match played in Chittangong, Bangladesh on 2nd March 2006.

Then Sri Lanka had a plus mark when Lankans and the distinction of having being able to shoot out Zimbabwe for 35 runs at Harare, Zimbabwe on April 25 this year.

The name of Sanath Jayasuriya too figures in the record books. Jayasuriya has been dismissed by Pakistani bowler Waqar Younis 13 times in 45 matches between Sri Lanka and Pakistan during 1989 and 2002 - a record for one-day international matches.

Another point of interest, though Sri Lanka is not involved, is the fact that South Africa scored 438 for 9 wickets batting second in a one-day International against Australia in Johannesburg, South Africa on March 12 this year. Australia had actually set a new record for a highest team score themselves batting first with 434 for 4 wickets.