Clive Inman was born in Ceylon, played for their national team in the 1950s and later moved to England where he played county cricket. Cricinfo and other sources reported his death in England on Dec 7, 2022:
Oddly enough, the obituaries (and even Wikipedia) did not mention his batting record in first-class cricket which was mentioned in older books on cricket trivia, He had scored a fifty off 10 balls in 8 minutes in a county match in 1965. I finally located this from a Sri Lankan newspaper:
Niroshan Dickwella is sometimes the subject of jokes involving his surname, but has attracted the attention of cricket enthusiasts for his puzzling inability to score a century.
Let us first look at:
Most 50+ scores without a century (8 and above):
Dickwella tops this list with 22 fifties, going far ahead of the previous record held by India’s CPS Chauhan which stood since 1981 until the 2020s. MA Starc is the only other current player here, and may yet make a hundred near the end of his Test career.
Also note Shane Warne whom we will meet again in this post.
Now we look at the
Most runs without a century (1500 and above):
Dickwella is 2nd here after Warne. Chauhan is in 3rd place. Other current players here are Southee and Starc.
Next we look at:
Highest batting averages without a century (Minimum 20 innings and 30.00):
This is headed by the lesser-known Asim Kamal, who made 99 on his Test debut. Dickwella is further down this list, in 10th place. His neighbours include current players C Green (Aus), HE vd Dussen (SA) and Faheem Ashraf (Pak). S Gill (Ind) also has an average above 30.
Still, Dickwella has made 96 in a Test. But there is a surprisingly large number of Test players whose top score is between 96 and 99:
9 players have a top score of 99, besides AJ Tudor who was left on 99 not out in a winning 4th-innings chase. Similarly there are many with 96, 97, 98 and 99. There are a few current players here such as MA Starc (again !), van der Dussen, Nauman Ali and newcomer J Overton who made 97 in his debut innings. They are followed by W Sundar and N Dickwella.
But the current players who have not made a Test century yet should not lose heart. Some have made their maiden centuries after a long wait. (This list may not be exhaustive):
Headed by Gilchrist and Healy, with Sangakkara some distance behind. Kusal Mendis (14) has the most among current players.
The most stumpings, however, are 6 by Kaluwitharana. The most by a fielder are 20 by M Jayawardene.
Most dismissals in an innings (4 or more):
Only Carey among current players.
Most dismissals in a match (6 or more):
Gilchrist and Healy lead again. Hayden is one of several fielders to have taken 7 catches in a match, which was a world record until Rahane took 8, also against Sri Lanka.
The series was drawn 1-1, with sudden collapses on the final day of play in both Tests.
Summary of all Tests between these teams:
While Australia leads 20-5 overall, it leads only by 7-5 in Sri Lanka. And Sri Lanka trails 13-0 in Australia.
Coming to individual performances;
Batting:
Most runs (500 or more):
Headed by M Hussey with 994 with Ponting and M Jayawardene close behind. Mathews (692) and Chandimal (579) have the most runs among current players.
The most centuries are 5 by Hussey, and the most 50+ scores are 8 by Clarke, Ponting and Sangakkara.
Highest innings (125 or more):
Chandimal’s 206* in the second Test is the highest for SL v Aus, surpassing Sangakkara’s 192 in Aus in 2007 and Kusal Mendis’s 176 in SL in 2016. This was a reatively low-scoring series, with the only other score of note being 145* by SPD Smith.
Highest batting averages (Minimum 20 innings, all instances):
Headed by Ponting and Sangakkara. The current players have not played enough.
Highest strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced and 40.00):
Headed by ST Jayasuriya and Hayden. Chandimal and Mathews are the only current players here.
Bowling:
Most wickets (12 or more):
Headed by R Herath with 66, followed by the better-known Warne and Muralidaran. Starc and Lyon have the most among current players. Newcomer P Jayasuriya makes this list after only one Test. The most 5-fors are 6 by Herath and Starc, and 10wms 2 by Starc and Warne.
Best innings bowling (6wi or more):
Headed by Kasprowicz and R Herath. P Jayasuriya’s 6-59 and 6-118 came on his debut.
Best match bowling (9wm or more):
Headed by R Herath’s 13-wicket haul in 2016 and P Jayasuriya’s 12 on debut in the second Test here.
That was the best match figures for any Sri Lankan player on debut. This is covered in more detail here:
He took 6 + 6 =12 wickets on his Test debut at Galle in July 2022, bringing an innings victory and 1-1 result for his team.
Here we look at all those who took 10 or more wickets on Test debut:
Prabodh’s 12-177 is the 4th best match haul in all Testson debut, and the best for Sri Lanka (surpassing P Jayawickrama’s 11-178 in 2021. Remember that Hirwani and Massie are still at the top.
We also look at the best innings figures for Sri Lanka in Tests on debut:
Prabodh’s 6-59 is the best for Sri Lanka on debut, surpassing P Jayawickrama’s 6-92 in 2021.
His 6-118 in the first innings is the third best for Sri Lanka.
The most 10-fors were 3 by Murali. No one else took more than 1.
The most wickets by current players are 32 by Roach and 27 by Lakmal.
Best innings bowling (including all 6wi and above):
The best by current players is 6-70 by RTM Mendis.
Best match bowling (including all 9wm and better):
Note RTM Mendis with 11-136 among current players.
Best bowling average (Minimum 2000 balls bowled):
Only these two make the cutoff. It is interesting that Vaas has a better average than Murali.
Most dismissals (10 and above):
The most by a keeper is 26 by Ramdin, and most by a fielder is 19 by M Jayawardene.
The most by current players are 21 by keeper N Dickwella and 16 by fielder DM de Silva.
Most innings dismissals (4 and above):
Note 5 by current player J Blackwood. He has a share in the world record of catches in an innings by a fielder. Also 5 by another current player N Dickwella (a wicketkeeper).
Most match dismissals (6 and above):
Note 7 by N Dickwella among current players.
Highest dismissal rate (Minimum 20 innings):
It is interesting that fielders have the highest dismissal rates. Wicketkeepers of both sides have not got extended runs.
The Test series between Sri-Lanka and the West Indies was won by the hosts 2-0. This meant that the West Indies was yet to win a Test (let alone a series) in Sri Lanka. This is summarized here:
This also means that Sri Lanka leads 11-4 in all Tests between these teams.
We look at individual figures in Batting:
Mostruns (Minimum 400):
The most centuries are 5 by Lara and 3 by Sangakkara
The most 50+ scores are 8 each by Sangakkara and Sarwan.
Among current players, the most are by Karunaratne (568) closely followed by Brathwaite (563).
Highest innings (Minimum 125):
The highest scores in the current series were 155* by DM de Silva and 147 by FD Karunaratne.
Batting averages are not here since no one has 20 or more innings.
But we do have Batting strike rates (Minimum 1000 balls faced):
Headed by Lara and M Jayawardene. FD Karunaratne has the highest SR among current players.
This T20I series in July 2021, like the ODI series which preceded it, only taught us that:
India C is better than Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is better than India D.
It was the first bilateral series in any format which Sri Lanka had won against India since July 2008.
A summary of all T20Is between these teams:
22 matches. India lead 14-7 with 1 no result.
In India: India lead 8-2 with 1 NR
In Sri Lanka: India lead 5-3
Neutral: Sri Lanka lead 2-1
A summary of individual performances follows. The number of matches is not enough for meaningful calculation of averages, strike rates and the like.
Most runs (100 or more):
Dhawan moved into the top position ahead of Kohli. MD Shanaka has the most runs by any current SL player.
RG Sharma is the only one with a century, while Kohli is the only one with 4 50+ scores.
Highest innings score (50 or more):
From this bowler-dominated series there is only SA Yadav’s 50.
Most wickets (8 or more):
YS Chahal and PVD Chameera from the current series are at the top. Chahal is the only one with 2 four-fors.
Best innings bowling (includes all cases of 4wi or more):
While the overall record is still Ashwin’s 4-8, it was almost surpassed by Hasuranga’s 4-9 in this series. There is also B Kumar’s 4-22 from this series.
Most dismissals (5 or more):
Dominated by Dhoni, while HH Pandya has the most catches by a non-keeper.
Most dismissals in an innings (3 or more):
Dhoni again.
Best all-round match performances (Minimum 20 runs and 2 wickets):
Yuvraj’s 60* and 3-23 is clearly the best. No good performances in this series.
These two have played together in various national teams several times.
The Sri Lankan player with the shortest name is less obvious. It would appear to be Isiru Udana who has played in a number of ODIs and T20Is over the last decade.
A more likely choice would be Roy Dias of the early Test sides. However, his full name was Roy Luke Dias and the scorecards usually put him down as R.L. Dias.
You can see that the other player’s full name is Isuru Udana Tillakaratna. However, this name does not appear in scorecards or media reports.
Update: Isiru Udana retired from international cricket a few days after this was published.
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