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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fox C2" data-source="post: 13992317" data-attributes="member: 370633"><img src="http://www.island.lk/modules/modPublication/article_title_images/673008520Last.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />by Rex Clementine    Take all the Sri Lankan batsmen who  have scored more than 5000  Test runs, they all had something special.  Aravinda had flamboyance, Marvan was  technically sound, Sanath was hard  hitting, Mahela is classy, Sanga the  perfectionist and Arjuna, a  fighter to the core. Thilan Samaraweera has none of  those attributes,  but yet has compiled over 5000 runs in Test cricket. How he  did it is  the mystery?    In fact, he made his Sri Lanka debut as an  off-spinner in 1999  in an ODI game in Australia when Muttiah  Muralitharan was injured. Being the  smart man he is, it didn’t take  Thilan long to realize that he wasn’t going to  go anywhere as a  spinner. Instead he concentrated on his batting and through  sheer hard  work rose up the ranks. Heaps of runs for his club SSC and Sri Lanka   ‘A’ saw him making his Test debut against India in 2001, where he had  the rare  honour of making a century on debut.  Since, then,  there have been several ups and downs. He was  dropped more than once in  his career lasting for over a decade, at times rather  unfairly,  particularly for the away Test series against Pakistan last year.  Thilan’s  high point was the twin hundreds he scored in South  Africa last  summer. He wasn’t picked in the original tour party and was only a  late  addition due to the intense pressure the Selection Panel headed by  Duleep  Mendis faced. In the end of it all, the cause proved to be  totally worth.  Before Samaraweera, only Hashan Tillekeratne  had scored a Test  hundred in South Africa. There was this notion that  the Sri Lankans couldn’t  handle bounce. If at all someone was going to  predict that on that tour a second  Sri Lankan was going to make a  century, they would have opted for the more  flamboyant Sangakkara,  Jayawardene, Dilshan or even Mathews. Samaraweera was a  flat track  bully, they said.  It all disappeared in Durban last year. On  a lively track,  against one of world’s best pace attacks, Samaraweera  crafted a match winning  century. Why the Durban win is all the more  special was that two of the most  underrated Sri Lankan cricketers –  Samaraweera and Rangana Herath – rose to the  limelight on that  occasion.  Samaraweera followed it up with another century in  Cape Town. No  talks of flat track bully then as he was the darling of  Sri Lankan cricket.  Thilan has redeemed the team on many an  occasion. But doesn’t  get the credit he deserves. When people labeled  his batting dull, Samaraweera  worked with Chandika Haturusinghe on  remaining positive and maximizing scoring  options. He was a different  player since then and to his credit earned a place  in Sri Lanka’s ODI  squad.  Thilan’s greatest strength is knowing his limitations  and  working hard to overcome those. During the recent second Test  against New  Zealand, after Sri Lanka’s top order had collapsed, he came  up with a knock that  held the innings together.  After his  fighting 76, coach Graham Ford called him a player  whom young  cricketers should emulate. "Obviously Thilan is a fantastic example.   Young cricketers don’t need to look too far to find how important hard  work is.  Sometimes they may think that you just come out and play, but  anyone who is  successful at this level has put in lot of hard work.  Thilan is a great example  for really making himself a batsman with a  solid technique. He had the talent  obviously, but he has developed his  technique and he has worked hard. He is a  professional cricketer and at  the moment it’s really good to have a guy like him  in the side and he  sets the example for the young players," Ford said.  Despite  the heavy runs he has scored, Samaraweera wouldn’t get  mentioned  alongside some of the Sri Lankan greats. But his team-mates would tell   you what he meant to the side. During the second Test against New  Zealand he was  batting with a split between his middle and ring fingers  of his right-hand that  required three stitches and pain killers. It  wasn’t the only occasion he has  done that.  He perhaps will  not be rated very highly among some of Sri  Lanka’s leading Test  batsmen, but the fact remains that Thilan has achieved for  Sri Lanka  what most couldn’t. Durban 2011 was his crowning moment and he is the   last man standing of a dying breed.The Island</blockquote>

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