"I Believe That Is Mr. de Silva's"

It's Aravinda de Silva's 42nd birthday today, and I was hoping to post a video of one of his many glorious innings, but all I could find on YouTube was some grainy straight-off-the-TV footage of four of his boundaries from a one-day innings against India in 1998; and this, the trophy ceremony from the 1996 World Cup Final, when de Silva won Man of the Match:



(I love how many hangers-on there are onstage -- it's like the scene at the end of "Happy Gilmore," when Happy beats Shooter in the putt-off and wins the golden jacket. I half-expected Mark Taylor to jump in at some point, grab the MoM trophy and run off with it, leading to some scary Sri Lankan building site foreman with a pituitary disorder and a nail through his skull to start chasing after him.)

For a much better display of de Silva's undeniable magic, how about cricinfo's account of my favourite single delivery in the history of cricket, during the 2002 Champions Trophy Semifinal:

   6.5 de Silva to Hayden, OUT: down the track comes Hayden, trying for
        the huge heave-ho over midwicket. But he doesn't keep his eye on
        the ball, which keeps low and straight and crashes into the
        stumps. The bowling change doing the trick here.

I still remember how cathartic that moment was. Some context: Australia won the toss and chose to bat first. They were in one of their ridiculous ‘swing viciously at the every delivery and just let the other team drop their way to a loss’ moods that day, and by the sixth over were already racing along at 8/over. Then de Silva came on and triggered the most delicious of collapses you could imagine. The symbolism was so apt, it gave you goosebumps – this little pear-shaped Sri Lankan part-timer, being asked to stave off the Imperial onslaught in the 7^th over of the match. He faces big, fee-fi-fo-fum-ing Matthew Hayden, more than ready to inflict some serious damage… and he bowls him, straight through the gate. Australia are all out for 163, de Silva ends up with bowling figures of 10-2-16-1, and Sri Lanka chase down the score with 7 wickets to spare. Can it possibly get any better?

Comments

[Joseph Rinella]

Mate I remember it well. You remember how i taped it for you, and then showed you those first few overs, paused it, then we got a little high, and watched the rest? So sweet son. So sweet

[Outside The Line]

One of my greatest memories. You set it up beautifully, without a doubt.

(Too bad the game was followed by that pair of farcical washouts. But who could have know, right? It was only monsoon season, and all.