Key Takeaways:
Upul Tharanga, a prominent Sri Lankan opening batter, has excelled in both ODI and Test cricket.
Notable performances include his highest ODI score of 174* against India in 2013 and his highest Test score of 165 against Bangladesh in 2006.
Upul Tharanga is one of the great Sri Lankan opening Batters that have played in the last 15 years and he has played for a lot of years and most prominently in ODI Cricket and he has played some test cricket as well in his career. Upul Tharanga has played in 31 Test Matches and has scored 1754 runs at an average of 31.89. He has made 3 Test Hundreds. He has also played in 235 ODIs for Sri Lanka. In those Matches he has made 6951 runs at an average of 33.74. He has made 15 ODI Hundreds.
Let’s look at the Top 5 Best Batting Performances of Upul Tharanga
1) 174* vs India (2013)
This is the highest score by Upul Tharanga in international cricket and it came against India in 2013. This was one of the best innings played by an opening batter in the history of ODI Cricket. He made a mind blowing 174 not out from 159 Balls. He hit 19 fours and 3 sixes meaning 94 runs in boundaries in this Innings. He ran for 80 of his runs and he had a strike rate of 109 in this innings. Sri Lanka had a dominant win over India in this match by 161 runs.
2) 165 vs Bangladesh (2006)
This is the highest test score by Upul Tharanga in test cricket. It came very early in his career against Bangladesh and he was in imperious form. Sri Lanka were Batting after the first innings of Bangladesh. Upul Tharanga batted for 304 balls in this match and he made a brilliant 165 runs. He smashed 19 fours and 2 sixes In this innings meaning 88 runs in boundaries. He was running for 67 of his runs in this innings. He had a good strike rate of 54 in this innings and Sri Lanka won this test match by 10 wickets.
3) 110* vs Zimbabwe (2016)
His second test hundred came 10 years after his first one which shows that even if a player is out of the team for a while, he still can make a comeback in test cricket provided he still has the skills and the ability to work Hard. This was in a test match against Zimbabwe and he was batting at number 4. He made a very good 110 not out from 208 balls in which he hit 10 fours meaning he hit 40 runs in boundaries. Upul Tharanga was showing the world that there is no age for batting well. Sri Lanka won this match by 225 runs.
4) 120 vs England (2006)
This was one of his best ODI hundreds because it came against one of the top teams which is England. This was a closely contested ODI where Upul Tharanga was the difference. Sri Lanka made 257 in the first innings in which he made 120 of those runs. He played 156 balls in this match and he hit 14 fours meaning 56 runs in boundaries. He had a strike rate of 77 and Sri Lanka won this match by 20 runs and he was the hero for his country.
5) 101* vs West Indies (2011)
The 5th innings In this list is this century against West Indies in 2011 where he won the ODI Match for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka were chasing a target of 199 and Upul Tharanga came out to open the innings and he hit 101 not out to win the match for Sri Lanka. He hit 7 fours in this innings only meaning 28 runs in boundaries. He ran for 73 of his runs and he had a strike rate of 71 in this innings. Sri Lanka won this match by 8 Wickets.
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