Wanindu Hasaranga comes of age with the bat

ELIZABETH BOTCHERBY: He arrived in the middle with Sri Lanka in disarray. He departed 70 minutes later with his side 131 for 4, a maiden T20 World Cup half-century to his name, and the joyous chants of “Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka" ringing in his ears

Wanindu Hasaranga was just 12 years old when Mahela Jayawardene became the first – and to date, only – Sri Lankan batter to score a century at the Men’s T20 World Cup, the great opener smashing exactly 100 runs off just 64 deliveries against Zimbabwe in Guyana in 2010.

Just under 11-and-a-half years later, the now 24-year-old allrounder produced a knock of his own which will no doubt be the talk of Sri Lanka at least until their clash with Netherlands on Friday. He didn’t break any records, nor did he reach three figures, but what he did do was announce himself on the world stage as a batting allrounder with a very bright future ahead.  

Hasaranga arrived in the middle with his side in disarray; three wickets had fallen in the first 10 deliveries and the usually boisterous Sri Lankan fan base were stunned into silence. He crossed back over the rope 70 minutes later with the scoreboard showing a much healthier 131 for 4, a half-century from his maiden T20 World Cup innings, and the joyous chants of "Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka" ringing in his ears.

It was a performance which before the match, even the most optimistic of cricket watchers would have struggled to have predicted. In his previous 26 T20I appearances, the Galle native had scored 200 runs and passed 20 on just one occasion – a 34-ball 44 against West Indies in Pallekele 18 months and 13 innings ago. His performances on the international stage had, so far, failed to live up to his career record of 771 runs at a strike rate of 131.34.

Signed as a replacement player by Royal Challengers Bangalore for the second half of the IPL, he was used sparingly by Virat Kohli, making just two appearances in the UAE. And in his international career to date, he’d batted at five just once before, scoring 14 runs.

^{Hasaranga (fourth right) also picked up the wicket of Gareth Delany in the powerplay}

But against Ireland, he batted like not only an upper-middle order regular, but also a player used to digging his side out of sticky situations. More importantly, his innings was not a slog fest but instead a masterful display in reading the game situation.

Coming out with the scoreboard showing 8 for 3 and Josh Little on a hat-trick, Hasaranga had one plan in mind: to take the game to Ireland and wrestle back control. He waited patiently for his opportunity, interspersing dot balls with two boundaries off Little and Mark Adair, respectively, before identifying Simi Singh as his target and smashing the Ireland spinner for four consecutive fours to finish the powerplay with a bang.

His batting became more patient over the next seven overs, happy to mostly deal in singles and twos (punctuated by timely boundaries) with partner Pathum Nissanka against the trio of Adair, Craig Young and Curtis Campher, while continuing to ruin Singh’s economy rate when the opportunity arose – of the 41 runs conceded by the 34-year-old across his three overs, 29 came from Hasaranga’s bat.

Sri Lanka’s no.5 brought up his half-century off the final ball of the 13th over, running a tired two to reach 51 off 38 deliveries, and at this point he entered the last phase of his fine innings: swing and hope.

Exhausted by his earlier exploits, Hasaranga spent his final two overs in the middle exposing all three stumps to the bowlers and swinging for all he was worth in the hope of avoiding an unwanted 22-yard dash. He scored 20 runs off his next eight deliveries but the ninth – which came one ball after his partner had brought up a well-deserved 50 of his own – was one delivery too far, a tired swing at Adair’s slower ball falling into the hands of Craig Young at backward point.

Credit must go to his partner Nissanka who, in only his sixth T20I appearance for Sri Lanka since making his debut in March 2021, upstaged all of his top-order colleagues. The 23-year-old scored 61 runs from 47 balls – becoming just the eighth Sri Lankan to score a T20 World Cup half-century in the process - and contributed 48 runs (35 balls) to the 123-run fourth-wicket stand – an understated, but crucial, supporting knock.

However, just as Chris Greaves had the Midas touch with bat and ball for Scotland against Bangladesh, Hasaranga added a stellar bowling display to his scorecard to give the tournament organisers no choice but to award him the player of the match trophy, picking up 1 for 12 from his four overs.

Speaking after his side secured their spot in the Super 12, Sri Lanka’s skipper, Dasun Shanaka, said promoting Hasaranga to no.5 had been his plan long before the scoreboard slipped to 8 for 3. However, not even he could have anticipated the young allrounder's coming of age in the sweltering Abu Dhabi heat.

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