Thilan Samaraweera

**Thilan Samaraweera**
Personal information
Full name	Thilan Thusara Samaraweera
Born	21 September 1976 (age 34) Colombo, Sri Lanka
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm offbreak
Role	Batsman
Relations	Dulip Samaraweera (brother)
International information
National side	Sri Lanka
Test debut (cap 86)	29 August 2001 v India
Last Test	5 December 2010 v West Indies
ODI debut (cap 97)	6 November 1998 v India
Last ODI	6 February 2011 v West Indies
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1998–present	Sinhalese Sports Club
1996–98	Colts Cricket Club
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODIs	FC	List A
Matches	63	44	222	163
Runs scored	4395	752	12,408	2,838
Batting average	54.25	26.85	49.23	32.25
100s/50s	12/25	2/0	33/62	2/16
Top score	231	105*	231	105*
Balls bowled	1,291	690	17,458	4,657
Wickets	14	10	348	108
Bowling average	48.50	53.80	23.43	28.79
5 wickets in innings	0	0	15	2
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	2	n/a
Best bowling	4/49	3/34	6/55	7/30
Catches/stumpings	37/–	14/–	177/–	56/–
Source: CricketArchive, 7 February 2011

Thilan Thusara Samaraweera is a Sri Lankan cricketer, born September 22, 1976 in Colombo. Samaraweera plays international cricket for Sri Lanka and is in the side primarily for his solid right-handed batting but is also a capable Off spinner.

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Personal life

Thilan Samaraweera born in Colombo and had his education at Ananda College, Colombo. His brother, Dulip Samaraweera is also a Test cricket player who had played 4 Test matches in his career from 1993 to 1995. He is married and has 2 children.

International career

Samaraweera started his career as an offspinner who could bat a bit and could not find a way into the side due to the emergence of Muttiah Muralitharan. He managed a handful of ODI games in 1998 but did not play Test cricket until August 2001. Having worked on his batting considerably he got due reward by scoring century on debut against a strong Indian side helping Sri Lanka to win the series 2-1. He continued to star with the bat by scoring another two centuries in his next five Tests, all on his home ground, the SSC in Colombo. This stunning start to international cricket cemented his spot in the middle order, a spot which had holes to fill with the retirements of Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Tillakaratne.
His off-spin has been rarely called upon by his captain but when he comes on he has earned a reputation as a partnership breaker.
After a poor Test series in England in which he failed to reach double figures in any of his four innings, he was dropped from the side. He was made captain of Sri Lanka A before earning a recall for the first Test against Australia in Brisbane. He scored 13 and 20 and was promptly dropped when Kumar Sangakkara returned to the side for the second game in Hobart. This was followed by his non-inclusion in the squad to play England in the first Test in Kandy.^[1]
Samaraweera was included in the Sri Lankan team to play the Test series in Pakistan in February - March 2009. This series was conducted after the Indian team withdrew from a scheduled series in Pakistan, following the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Samaraweera started off the series in superb form, hitting consecutive double centuries – 231 in the first Test in Karachi and 214 in the second Test in Lahore.
In February 2009, he shared a record-breaking partnership of 437 with Mahela Jayawardene. This is a world record for 4th wicket in Test cricket. The previous Test record was held by an English pair—Peter May and Colin Cowdrey—who put on 411 against West Indies at Birmingham in May 1957.
In September 2009, he got his maiden ODI century against New Zealand national cricket team at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo. It took a long period of time since his ODI debut.

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Samaraweera's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

Test centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of the Test centuries scored by Thilan Samaraweera

In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

Test centuries of Thilan Samaraweera^[2]
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	103*	1	Zimbabwe	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2001
[2]	123*	6	Zimbabwe	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2001
[3]	142	14	England	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2003
[4]	100	23	Pakistan	Faisalabad, Pakistan	Iqbal Stadium	2004
[5]	138	30	Bangladesh	Colombo, Sri Lanka	P. Saravanamuttu Stadium	2005
[6]	125	42	West Indies	Port of Spain, West Indies	Queen's Park Oval	2008
[7]	127	43	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2008
[8]	231	47	Pakistan	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	2009
[9]	214	48	Pakistan	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	2009
[10]	159	53	New Zealand	Galle, Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium	2009
[11]	143	54	New Zealand	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2009
[12]	137*	60	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	P. Saravanamuttu Stadium	2010

ODI centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of the ODI centuries scored by Thilan Samaraweera

ODI centuries of Thilan Samaraweera
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	104	22	New Zealand	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	2009
[2]	105*	30	India	Dhaka, Bangladesh	S B National Stadium	2010

Lahore Attack

Samaraweera, along with five other Sri Lankan cricketers, were injured in the March 3, 2009 attack on the bus that carried the Sri Lankan cricketers to the Gaddafi Stadium. He was hospitalised with a thigh injury.^[3] Samaraweera was the most seriously injured player amongst them. Six policemen that guarded the bus and two civilians were killed in the attack.

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