World Cup Heroes - Sanath Jayasuriya stuns in 1996

"It is always a massive compliment to someone to say they changed the game, and his performance in the 1996 World Cup changed everyone's thinking about how to start an innings."

Premier fast-bowler, Glenn McGrath had this to say about Sanath Jayasuriya when asked to list out the toughest batsmen he'd bowled to. To simply call Jayasuriya, a game-changer, would be a gross understatement. Jayasuriya didn't just change a game, he changed an ideology.

Batting in ODI cricket, in the eighties and early nineties, followed a rehearsed pattern - Respect the new ball, conserve wickets, build a platform and then launch a late assault after the opposition bowlers had tired themselves out to a point where they longed to get back to the dressing room. Kiwi batsman, Mark Greatbatch broke this trend in 1992 with varied success. It wasn't until the mid-90s, did someone truly shake the established order. Just before the quadrennial event moved to the sub-continent in 1996, Sri Lanka experimented with an all-out attack approach in the first fifteen overs of fielding restriction (There was no separate batting powerplay then) during a series against Australia. Sanath Jayasuriya was then given the license to go berserk at the top of the order. And berserk he went!

At a time when 60 runs was considered par at the 15-over mark, Sri Lanka got 117 against India, 123 versus Kenya and 121 against England in the quarter finals. Jayasuriya, in particular, was severe on anything fractionally short, and employed the cut and the pull to clear the infield. In a group game against India, chasing a steep 273, Jayasuriya and opening partner, Romesh Kaluwitharana, scored 42 runs of their first three overs. Such was the brutality of Jayasuriya's hitting that Indian medium-pacer, Manoj Prabhakar, resorted to bowling off-spinners in his second spell. In their next game, the southpaw tore into the Kenyan new-ball bowlers on his way to 44 off 27 and enabled Sri Lanka to post, the then world-record of 398 in their 50 overs.

In Faisalabad for the quarter-final against England, Jayasuriya went one better. He blitzed his way to 82 off just 44 deliveries with 13 hits to the fence and 3 over it. By the time England realized what hit them, Sri Lanka had chased down 236 in 41 overs and had checked in to their hotel rooms in Kolkata for the semi-finals.

Mohammad Azharuddin's decision to field first in the semifinals on an Eden Garden's surface that crumbled in the second-half of the match was perhaps the greatest testament to Jayasuriya's exploits in the '96 World Cup. Jayasuriya was dismissed in the very first over but came on to bowl and ended with figures of 3/12. There wasn't to be a Jayasuriya special against Australia in the final either. but he had done his bit with a wicket and a couple of catches as Sri Lanka completed a historic World Cup win.

In six innings, Jayasuriya had aggregated 221 runs at an average of 36.83. Not lofty by any standards. But it wasn't the runs that mattered anymore. It was the way he got them. Striking at 131.54, Jayasuriya had softened the ball and the bowlers before Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga walked in. His contributions, however, didn't end with just terrorizing the opposition bowlers into submission. He doubled up as a useful bowler and a safe fielder, taking 7 wickets and 5 catches. He was named the player of the tournament and ODI cricket was never the same again.