In 1985/86, a 20 year old batsman was facing the pacy Imran Khan, nearing his maiden . Did he search for easy singles? No
"Mad Max" hooked Imran for a SIX to get to his maiden Int'l

That was Oozing Class

#OnThisDay Happy Birthday Pinnaduwage Aravinda de Silva

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Some cricketers are "Born for Greatness" & we have been truly blessed enough to have Aravinda fall in that category.

Born in Colombo, De Silva had taken major strides in School Cricket with a huge appetite for big runs

His balance at the crease was being talked about then too

His entry into the higher levels of cricket was just inevitable.

Aravinda was rightly selected in the @OfficialSLC U19 team for the Tour of Australia in 1983/84.

Just to prove himself worthy to be there (though there wasn't any need to), he scored 145 @ Adelaide & 95 @ MCG

Based on those u19 performances, Aravinda became an automatic choice for the 1984 Tour of England, making his debut at Lords, just months prior to his 19th B'Day

His 1st major innings was an unbeaten 46* vs Aus in World Series Cricket in 84/85, their 1st ever ODI win Down Under.

Aravinda's heroics in the tour to Pakistan in 1985/86 just proved he belonged to the International arena, & with some audacious strokeplay against Imran, Wasim & late Qadir sir.

He scored 2 brilliant, yet contrasting s in that series, showing his versatility as a batsman, too.

Aravinda was giving the nickname as "Mad Max", following his tendency to get out to rash strokes.

He had a simple explanation for that, "That's my natural game. I don't want to change coz i feel confident of playing that way. It's the way i have played since i was a youngster"

The grip on the handle of his bat was a bit unique, but was as orthodox as a batsman, one can get

In 1989/90, he played a magical innings of 167 vs Aus @ Gabba, with almost 500 mins being spent at the crease

Here's the @YouTube video from @robelinda2

The Gabba magic was memorable, since it was also the first 100 by a SL batsman in Aus.

Just a year later, Mad Max scored a breathtaking 267 at Wellington. Later, he dedicated this knock to his sister, a local resident. Also, scored 96 & 123 @ Auckland to sum up a magical series.

His captaincy tenure was too less to talk about with disappointments in the form of tours to England & Pak in 91/92, which was followed by a low WC too in 1992. One of the reasons was an ineffective bowling unit unable to take wickets

But, good things were about to happen soon:)

The home series vs Aus in 1992/93 marked the return of Ranatunga as skipper, and the most relieved man was Aravinda with his batting slot at no. 4.

The civil war in SL had kept International Cricket away from the Lankan shores between 1987-92.

Due to the above scenarios on home soil, Mad Max scored his 1st Test on home soil, almost a decade after making his debut. Scored a brilliant 148 vs India at Colombo in 1993/94.

In 1994/95, he scored a scorching 127 vs Wasim & Waqar, out of the team's 1st innings score of 226

The year 1995 held a special place in the fortunes for Mad Max.

1. His association with Kent, having a productive season scoring 1,661 runs @ avg of 59.32
2. The appointment of Dave Whatmore as SL head coach

Aravinda, now 30, was set for his 2nd innings in International Cricket

Enters the 1996 WC

Aravinda and SL Cricket just rose to another level, conquering World Cricket by surprise, with their brand of attacking cricket being played.

He scored truckload of runs, playing in an aggressive, yet a very orthodox brand of cricket.

Time for Aravinda 2.0

Batting against a boisterous 1.1 lac Kolkata crowd in Eden Gardens, a HIGH PRESSURE SEMIS vs India. Comes in at no. 4 with score reading 1/2.

Q. What does Mad Max do next?
A. Scores a blistering 66 runs in just 47 deliveries, taking the game away from India in a matter of time.

Comes the 1996 WC finals. No team till then had ever won CHASING in a WC Finals.

Post having taken 3 scalps with his off spin, De Silva comes out to bat, with score reading 23/2 this time.

What's next?

Mad Max plays a CLASSIC, scoring 107* vs McGrath, Warne, Fleming, Reiffel

This WC victory for SL in 1996 changed the entire dynamics of World Cricket on its feet.

Hitting over the infield, pinch hitters, spinners bowling in powerplays all came to the fore across all teams.

This was truly a game changing moment in World Cricket across all nations.

Then, came the time for Aravinda to rule World Cricket with his brilliant, yet orthodox strokeplay, scoring tons of runs all across the globe.

Aravinda scored 1,188 & 1,212 runs in consecutive years in 1996-1997. Sharjah was one of his happy hunting grounds, along with Colombo.

Aravinda had the most purple of all his patches in the year 1997, scoring 1,220 runs at an outstanding avg of 76.25. This amazing run had 7 s, with 3 back-to-back ones vs Pak

In the process, Aravinda became the 1st batsman ever to score 2 unbeaten tons in a single Test Match.

The highlight of his County season with Kent being his brilliant 112 vs @lancscricket in the Benson & Hedges Cup final at Lords.

From there on, his big match ability as a players grew to another level, altogether.

His aggressive counter-attacking 82 runs vs Donald & co. in the Princess Diana Memorial match at @HomeOfCricket is surely a Must Watch, if haven't seen yet.

Here's a small highlights for you guys from that innings

The 1998 one off Test vs England at Oval was a special one for Aravinda & SL Cricket. Jayasuriya (213) & Aravinda (152), followed with the evergreen Murli's 16 wickets helped the Lankans win handsomely by 10 wickets

By the time Aravinda decided to hang up his boots in 2003, he had an array of batting records, just as he had his array of strokes to score them in his career.

Scored 6,361 Test runs @ avg of 42.97, including 20 s

Scored 9,284 ODI runs @ avg of 34.90, including 11 s

Post retirement, Aravinda has held posts withing many @ICC committees too, alongside other legends of the game

He was appointed the Chairman of the national selection committee in @OfficialSLC during the @ICC WC 2011 & @ICC @WorldT2016.

An excellent career on & off the field

Aravinda used his bat like a sword at times to thrash the opposition bowling attack.

His aura at the batting crease was so very special in that era.

Standing at 5ft 3inches, he used to dominate bowers releasing the ball from a height of 7-7.5ft, with ease and power.

WoW

Mad Max is the only player to score a & bag 3 scalps in a WC Finals

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: @robelinda2, Icccvideos, PK Khan, Cricket King