dilshan

Tillakaratne Mudiyanselage Dilshan (born October 14, 1976 in Kalutara, Sri Lanka) is a Sri Lankan cricketer and member of the Sri Lankan national cricket team since November 1999. Known as Tuwan Mohammad Dilshan prior to his conversion from Islam to Buddhism,[1] an aggressive right-hand batsman, he is also a capable spin bowler and his off breaks are mostly used in the one-day arena.


Career
Dilshan made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in 1999. He scored his maiden Test hundred in the series with a 163. Dilshan also made his One day international debut against Zimbabwe before spending the next 15 months in and out of the side. Even when he played he never knew his place in the side as he was constantly being pushed up and down the order.

His revival as an international cricketer came in 2003. In four consecutive Test innings he scored 63, 100, 83 and 104. The latter came against the world champion Australian side at Galle. In September 2005 Dilshan scored his most recent Test century, an innings of 168 off just 179 balls against Bangladesh.

In first final of the 2005-06 VB Series, Dilshan's fielding made headlines when he made four run outs.

In November 2007, Dilshan scored 188 for Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club against Colts Cricket Club in a 50 over game. The innings is the joint 14th highest score made in any List A cricket match (alongside Gary Kirsten's 188 in 1996), and came from just 135 balls, at a strike rate of 139.25. He hit 14 fours and 12 sixes before being bowled by fellow Sri Lankan international Nuwan Kulasekara. The scorecard for the game can be found here [2]

In 2009 T20 world cup series, Dilshan became player of the series with 317 runs in seven matches which includes three half centuries. He maintained a 52.83 batting average throughout the series, which was the fourth best among all the cricketers, behind AJ Matthews (Sri Lanka) with 75, J Kallis (South Africa) with 59.5 and Younis Khan (Pakistan) with 57.33.[3]

His scoop, played straight over the wicket keeper's head, was displayed for the first time during this tournament and came to be known as the Dilscoop in his honour