We are back with yet another best performance article about a legend of the game and this time it is about one of the modern greats of Sri Lankan cricket and one of the best batters for Sri Lanka in the last 20 years. Marvan Atapattu was also the captain of Sri Lanka for a number of years and under his leadership Sri Lanka did very well in international cricket. He played international cricket from 1990-2007 which is 17 great years at the top of cricket. We will talk about his records below.
Marvan Atapattu played 90 Test Matches for Sri Lanka from 1990-2007 and in these 17 years he scored 5502 runs at an average of 39.02 with 16 Test hundreds and 6 double Hundreds which is one of the most in history. Marvan Atapattu also played 268 ODIs for Sri Lanka and in these many Matches he got 8529 runs at an average of 37.57 with 11 ODI hundreds. He has a total of more than 14000 international runs and 27 hundreds to his name. Let’s see the Top 5 Best Performances of this great player.
249 vs Zimbabwe (2004)
The highest test score in the career of Marvan Atapattu came late in his career in 2004 in a Test match against Zimbabwe and at that time Zimbabwe was a strong team. In this test match Sri Lanka were replying to the small first innings score by Zimbabwe and Marvan Atapattu came out to open the Innings and he just started hitting the bowlers to all parts of the ground and he hit 36 fours and 1 six which means a total of 150 runs in boundaries and he was striking at 76.85. He only took 324 balls to make 249 runs and just missed out on 250 by a run but this will be very special for his career.
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201* vs England (2001)
This was a pure test match classic innings by Marvan Atapattu. If the first one on this list was full of attacking shots then this one was a display of unrivaled determination and focus on his part. This was the first innings of this test match and Marvan Atapattu came out to open and he batted for a marathon 536 balls in this innings and was not out for 170 overs and in this classic he hit only 18 fours and at a strike rate of 37.50 and he was rewarded with a double hundred for his tremendous efforts that day.
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185 vs England (2002)
This was the best away test innings in the career of Marvan Atapattu and this came at Lord’s so he got his name on the honors board and this was an innings of the highest order in front of the swinging ball and he just hung in there for Sri Lanka. It was the first innings of the test match and Marvan Atapattu batted for 351 balls in this innings and he hit 24 fours in this innings at a strike rate of 52.71. Sri Lanka were able to make 555 in their first innings and this match was a draw.
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132* vs England (1998)
The highest ODI score in the career of Marvan Atapattu came in 1998 vs England and it came in a run chase of more than 250 runs which was a lot at that time. Marvan Atapattu came out to bat at number 3 and took control of the innings and started hitting fours all around the ground and he made 132* from just 151 balls and he hit 14 fours and he was striking at 87.42. He stayed right till the end when she won the match for Sri Lanka. This was one of the best innings of his career and his highest ODI score.
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119* vs Pakistan (2000)
The last incredible batting Performance by Marvan Atapattu is this knock that he played against Pakistan in 2000 in Karachi. Sri Lanka were batting first In this ODI and Marvan Atapattu came in at number 3 as usual and he went about his business like he does and he made a brilliant 119* from 135 balls with just 7 fours meaning he ran ones and twos quite often and he did all that while striking at 88+. This was a remarkable innings and Sri Lanka won the match by 29 runs.
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