Sidath Wettimuny made memorable 190 at Lord's in 1984

Leslie FERNANDO

CRICKET: Sidath Wettimuny, the youngest and the most accomplished of Wettimuny brothers played cricket for Ananda for five years. He captained the school in 1975 and then played of Sri Lanka in a limited-overs match played against MCC in 1977 and later went on to become a celebrated Test cricketer with a memorable 190 in 1984 at Lord's against England. He was also a member of the cricket selection committee.

The 52-year-old Sidath Wettimuny, as an opening batsman, played for Sri Lanka in Test and one-day internationals from 1982 to 1987. He was a typical opening batsman and often played very defensively, grafting his runs and his ODI strike rate of 48 shows this quite clearly. Wettimuny made his international debut with a composed 46 in an ODI against England which left the required run rate too high for his team-mates to chase. However, he got his revenge in the next match, the following day, the last of the 2 match series where he scored an unbeaten 86, his highest ODI score. It boosted Sri Lanka to 215 in their 45 overs. Sri Lanka won the match by there runs thus drawing their first ODI series.

Wettimuny did not impress in his first Test match. He scored 15 runs in two innings and England won by seven wickets. But in the 1981-82 tour of Pakistan, he established his place in the team scoring 71 in the First Test before recording Sri Lanka's first Test century at Faisalabad. Spending over six hours at the crease, Sidath made 157 runs and helped Sri Lanka to 454. Sri Lanka eventually drew the Test, failing to bowl Pakistan out in 59 overs, but it was Sri Lanka's first Test that they did not lose. Sri Lanka lost the last Test despite Wettimuny tops scoring with 41 in the second innings, but Wettimuny would be rather pleased with his tour personally.

He also impressed in ODIs, making 37 in the first of four ODIs against Australia in 1982-83. Sri Lanka won the first ODI in seven matches and went on to win the second as well, thanks to 56 from Wettimuny. Two matches were `rained off' and so Sri Lanka won their first ODI series, but they were quickly brought down to earth as Australia won the Test match by an innings and 38 runs. Wettimuny made 96 in the second innings as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 205.

The ODI fifty against Australia was his highest as passed 35 again in the 1983 World Cup against Pakistan. However, it took him 127 balls and when he was out at 162 for 3 Sri Lanka needed plenty of runs quickly. Despite a blitzing 26 from Ranjan Madugalle, Sri Lanka lost too many wickets to Abdul Qadir and fell 11 runs short.

After this, Wettimuny suffered a poor run of form only scoring 115 runs at an average of 12.77.

He made his second Test century on the 1984 tour of England, he made 190 which gave Sri Lanka a 121 run first innings lead. However, that had taken for days to achieve and Sri Lanka opted to bat out the 5th day for a draw. Wettimuny only made 13 in the second innings, but he has set a new Sri Lankan record - highest score which stood until Brendon Kuruppu passed it with Sri Lanka's first Test double century in a 1986-87 Test against New Zealand. Wettimuny 190 also made an imprint in the minds of English cricket fans as he was made Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1985, the first Sri Lankan to be thus honoured.

After that century, however, Wettimuny's Test form went the same way as his ODI form. His brothers Mithra and Sunil also played cricket for Sri Lanka, all three opening for Sri Lanka.

Sidath Wettimuny's Tests and ODIs performances are: Played 23 Tests, scored 1,221 runs, hit 2 centuries and six fifties, top score of 190 at an batting average of 20.07. Balls bowled 4 and held 10 caches.

In the ODI's, played 35 matches scored 786 runs, had four fifties, highest score being 86 batting average 24.56, balls bowled 9.3 overs, claimed one wicket at an average of 70.00.