Arjuna Ranatunga is probably the most influential Sri Lanka player that has ever played the game as he was the captain who took them to their greatest moment of glory in 1996 when under his leadership Sri Lanka won the World Cup and it was the biggest sporting moment in their history. And not only he was a great captain but also a very capable batter as well as he has got over 12500 runs in international cricket from both formats and he has bailed Sri Lanka out of trouble a lot of times. We will talk about his records below.
Arjuna Ranatunga played international cricket from 1982-2000 which is 18 years at the highest level of the game and he gave it his all for Sri Lanka and his records speak for themselves. He has played 93 Test Matches for Sri Lanka and in those matches he has scored 5105 runs at an average of 35.70 with 4 test hundreds to his name. In ODIs he played 269 ODIs for Sri Lanka and he made 7456 ODI runs for Sri Lanka at an average of 35.85 and he also had 4 ODI hundreds to his name. Let’s see the Top 5 Best Performances of Arjuna Ranatunga.
135* vs Pakistan (1986)
The first performance that we will talk about is this knock of 135* that he played against Pakistan in 1986 when Pakistan had one of the best bowling attacks in world cricket and this performance came in the second innings of the test match as well. He came into bat at number 5 and from there he built on his innings and he hit 15 fours in this innings to all parts of the ground and he had a strike rate of 72.85 and he steered the ship for Sri Lanka. This was a way to announce to the world that he had arrived in international cricket.
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131 vs South Africa (1993)
It looked like Arjuna Ranatunga was the second innings man for Sri Lanka In test cricket as after that knock against Pakistan years ago he did it again vs South Africa in 1993 when they were the most potent bowling group in the world. And he blasted then all over the ground as he hit 18 fours and 1 six in this innings at a whopping strike rate of 93.57 and he only took 140 balls to make 131 and the match was a draw but this performance deserved to be listed in the best performances.
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52 and 87* vs Zimbabwe (1998)
The third performance on this list is the match winning effort he showed with the bat in this test match vs Zimbabwe at a time when the Zimbabwe was among the best in the world. Arjuna Ranatunga hit a brilliant 52 in the first batting innings for Sri Lanka and he took 143 balls to do it and he hit 6 fours and at a strike rate of 36.36 he did not let the innings slide. Then in the all important 4th innings he again stood up and made 87* from 232 balls and made sure that Sri Lanka won this match by 5 wickets and he hit 12 fours in this innings.
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131* vs India (1997)
The first ODI batting performance that we will talk about is his highest ODI score and this was his best ODI innings as well. It came against India when they were one of the best ODI teams and Sri Lanka were chasing 228 in the match to win. Arjuna Ranatunga came out at number 4 to bat and from the time he came out it was 1 wat traffic as he smashed the Indian bowlers for 17 fours and he took 152 balls to make 131 and he did it at a strike rate of 86.18. It was an exhibition of batsmanship of the highest caliber.
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87* vs West Indies (1997)
The year 1997 was very kind to Arjuna Ranatunga as he kept on piling on the runs in ODIs and this time the knock he played against West Indies is the 5th performance to be featured on this list. Sri Lanka were chasing 238 to win in 50 overs and Arjuna Ranatunga came to bat at number 5 and he played the finisher’s role to perfection as he hit a sublime 87* from just 92 balls at a strike rate of 94.57 and he hit 8 fours and Sri Lanka chased down the score in just 39.4 overs and Arjuna Ranatunga was the star of the show.
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