Thissara Perera - Sri Lanka’s latest find
by Tyrell Peiris
Allrounders in cricket these
days are a hard to come by species especially in Sri Lanka which in the
last two decades had only Chaminda Vaas and Sanath Jayasuriya to speak
of. In that perspective the arrival of Thissara Perera must be
considered as a huge find in the wake of another such in Angelo Mathews.
Thus, for Sri Lanka getting allround material in that context to do duty
is like laying hand on gold. So precious are allrounders as world
cricket has proved since the days of Garfield Sobers, Keith Miller, Sir
Frank Worrell, Ian Botham, Tony Greig, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Kapil
Dev to mention a few.
 On the topic of allrounders, the emergence of Naramgoda
Liyanaarachchi Thissara Perera, aged 31 was in the recently concluded
Sri Lanka tour of India is significant. In fact, Thissara got his chance
when he was called up by the national sectors suddenly midway of the
tour to replace Angelo Mathews who was injured. And did not Thissara
grab that opportunity with both arms. In the match that Sri Lanka scored
415 to lose by a few runs? Thissara rose to the occasion batting at
number eight striking a quick fire 31 inclusive of two sixes and several
boundaries.
Thissara has continued to show good form this time in the ongoing Tri
Nation Tournament hosted by Bangladesh and also competed by India. His
unbeaten 36 in double quick time against India in the second match
having come into bat at No. 6 turned out to be a match winning knock. In
fact, Thissara importantly partnered Thilan Samaraweera in giving him
support to reach his century and guide Sri Lanka to a handsome 5-wicket
win, a win that put Sri Lanka on top of the points table having also
beaten Bangladesh in the opening game.
It was in this encounter that Thissara Perera made his allround
presence felt when he claimed 2 wickets for 27 runs in restricting India
to 279 for 9 wickets after they had looked at one stage like reaching
300.
Thissara, like Mathews, is a find from the Sri Lanka Youth XI who
represented his country at that level against several countries
including India. But he first came into the limelight playing for the
Sri Lanka Under-19 XI. Opening the bowling he came up with some
noteworthy performances in a Youth Test against India. This earned him a
call up to the Lanka side for the Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia in 2008
before cementing his place in the Lanka ‘A’ team.
At domestic level Thissara, like Mathews, a product of St. Joseph’s
College, Colombo, represents Colts CC and bowls right-arm medium pace.
Going by the early promise the youngster has shown he is certainly a
sound prospect for the future and is seen as a player who has added the
shine to the Lankan team in rebuilding with accent on youth for the 2011
world Cup. |
