Thisara takes Sri Lanka cricket forward!

Thisara Perea might be one of the youngest players in the Sri Lankan camp but that hasn’t deterred selectors from enlisting him in the IPL (Indian Premier League). Showing potential even in club cricket, he was instumental in Colombo Colts winning the Premier Tier A championship for 2008-09. He was said to have managed the new ball excellently and also performed exceptionally with the bat.

Thisara Perera can be called a “budding” allrounder. He has a left hand bat (some have even compared him to Sanath Jayasuriya) but bowls right arm medium pace. He is known to be a hard hitting batsman proved by his first class strike rate of 90.21. In fact, statistics have shown that he has done better as a batsman than a bowler. Thisara Perera is one of a superb quartet of players produced by St Joseph’s College in the past two years.

Thisara is a right arm fast-medium bowler (130 kmh speed) and a good right hand batsman. He fared extremely well for Colts in the last Under- 23 tournament and continued to be one of their key players in the recently concluded Premier Tournament which Colts won. Former Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsman Romesh Kaluwitharana even praised Thisara greatly. Thisara also proved his dynamism by being part of Sri Lanka’s Under-19 World Cup squad.

The promising young all-rounder was the only Sri Lankan player to earn a contract at the Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction. The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bought Perera for US $50,000 while none of the Pakistan players were sold at the auction. In all, 56 players remained unsold out of 67 that went under the hammer. “It’s really a great opportunity for me. To play among the stars in the Indian Premier League is a big thing for me,” Perera said. The 20-year-old was all praise for CSK captain Dhoni. “He is the most patient captain I have ever seen.

He is extremely cool-headed on the field that inspires youngsters like me. It’s really a dream-come-true that I am in a team which has Dhoni as the captain,” he said. The southpaw earned a surprise national call-up during Sri Lanka’s tour of India last year as emergency replacement for Angelo Mathews and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

Perera made his debut in Eden Gardens with a 14-ball 31 in Sri Lanka’s 315 for six, but he shot to fame with an unbeaten 15-ball 36 - his best from six ODIs - that helped Sri Lanka chase a 280-run target against India in the tri-nation tournament in Mirpur.

Boasting an impressive ODI strike-rate of 161.53, Perera said: “I always bat with aggression.

I try to hit the ball hard. My approach suits Twenty20 the most”. He concluded, “I always enjoy big hitting. I like to bat more than I bowl. But it always helps if I contribute with the ball as well.”

Courtesy: SundayObserver

Posted on Monday, April 19, 2010 @ 11:08:58 LKT by Sandun