Sri Lanka vs Australia: The 1996 World Cup win & an enthralling rivalry

On today in 1996, Sri Lanka defeated Australia within the finals of the 1996 World Cup. With 100, 3 wickets, and a pair of catches, Aravinda de Silva was the undisputed hero of the match.

25 years after 1996. The win that Galvanized a nation and impressed me to think about that possibly at some point I might play for the nation. #1996worldcupwin
— Kumar Sangakkara (@KumarSanga2) March 17, 2021
Arjuna Ranatunga, the captain of the Lankan group, received the toss and requested the Kangaroos to bat first. Courtesy of skipper Mark Taylor’s 74 and Michael Bevan’s 36 off 49 balls, Australia have been in a position to rating 63 within the final 10 overs and set a complete of 241/7.
In reply, Sri Lanka misplaced their famed opening duo of Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana, with simply 23 runs on the board.
Chasing 242, it was a difficult part at that second however in got here Aravinda De Silva, and along with Asanka Gurusinha stitched a helpful partnership to steer Lanka out of bother.
After Gurusinha’s exit, Ranatunga joined De Silva within the center and remained unbeaten on 47 (off 37 balls). The duo added 97 runs in an unbeaten fourth-wicket partnership and fittingly the 2 senior professionals scripted a historic day in Lankan cricket.

#OnThisDay 1996How it started~How it turned out pic.twitter.com/b3qqhM4hFv
— World Series Cup 🏏🇦🇺 🌏 ⚪ (@WSCupCricket) March 17, 2021

The Rivalry
Both Australia and Sri Lanka have contested eight instances in World Cups.
The Lankans have nevertheless received only one match by proper towards Australia. The solely win by proper for Sri Lanka got here within the ultimate of the 1996 World Cup. In all the opposite matches, nevertheless, it has been Australia who’ve emerged victorious. The 1996 World Cup nevertheless was a unique story with Sri Lanka remaining unbeaten all through the match. In reality, Australia had misplaced twice to Sri Lanka, technically, in that match. Australia had pulled out of their league match towards Sri Lanka in Colombo owing to safety fears and the factors have been awarded to the host. In the ultimate at Lahore, Sri Lanka famously chased down Australia’s whole of 241 for seven of their 50 overs with 22 balls to spare. The hero of that win and Sri Lanka’s first-ever World Cup win was Aravinda de Silva with an unbeaten 107 off 124 balls.
However since then every time each side have met it has been a one-way site visitors.
Australia received the encounter in a Super Six match of the 2003 World Cup, then within the semi-final of the 2003 World Cup and at last received within the 2007 World Cup ultimate in relatively gloomy circumstances at Barbados. That 2007 ultimate was the final full sport between the 2 sides in a World Cup. The 2007 ultimate was additionally not with out some drama with the match officers forgetting the principles that have been wanted to be enforced in case the stipulated 20 overs had been bowled. Then within the 2011 World Cup, the match between the 2 sides ended abruptly, with rain taking part in spoilsport.
But probably the most controversial match between each side was on the 1975 World Cup, after they confronted off for the first-ever ODI. Australia’s paceman Jeff Thomson knocked down two Sri Lankan players-Sunil Wettimuny and Duleep Mendis-with his bouncers.
Wettimuny and Mendis have been acquitting themselves effectively towards the Aussie tempo battery when the Thommo thunderbolt struck them.Years later, Wettimuny and Mendis relived their horror. “It was a like a flash. I couldn’t see the ball,” Wettimuny remembered in an interview to Cricinfo. “It was the fastest spell of fast bowling I had ever faced in my life,” Mendis reminisced. “He was averaging over 100 miles. It was seriously fast and we had no protection,” added Mendis in that interview to Cricinfo.
Thommo himself was quoted as having stated: “They were only little fellas, so you couldn’t call it a bouncer exactly!”
Now each Wettimuny and Mendis can see the humorous aspect of the incident. Mendis recalled years later an incident the place a policeman requested him to press expenses towards Thomson. “Next morning a policeman walked into my room. He held his bobby’s helmet below one arm and he requested, ‘Do you want to press charges against a Mr. Jeff Thomson?’
Interestingly, Wettimuny was to later develop into a pilot. His finest second as a pilot was helming a particular aircraft from Lahore in 1996 with the victorious Sri Lankan squad. Guess, who was the supervisor of the Sri Lankan squad? Duleep Mendis. Along with, skipper Arjuna Ranatunga, Mendis celebrated with Wettimuny within the cockpit earlier than the group touched down in Colombo.