Dilruwan Perera joins an exclusive club

Dilruwan Perera

Muttiah Muralitharan

Rangana Herath

Dinuka Hettiarachchi

 By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

In the recently concluded 2020-21 domestic cricket season Sri Lanka and Colts off-spinner Dilruwan Perera achieved a rare milestone when he became only the fifth bowler from Sri Lanka to go past 800 wickets in first-class cricket.

The unique fact is that all five bowlers are spinners – three of the left-arm and two are off-spinners.

Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan undoubtedly heads the list with a record breaking 1374 first-class wickets for a Sri Lankan of which 800 have come in Tests. His figures of 119 five-for in an innings and 34 ten-for in a match are unbeatable in today’s context of the game where first-class matches are played few and far between with the advent of the money spinning T20 cricket.

Therefore in the circumstances for a Sri Lankan bowler to achieve 800-plus first class wickets is quite an achievement. 

In the recent past, first-class matches formed part and parcel of a tour itinerary ahead of a Test series, but with the international calendar getting cramped with white ball cricket including a first-class match or two to the tour itinerary is fast becoming a thing of the past.

The unexpected arrival of COVID-19 has further crowded the international cricket schedules and presently Test matches are taking place without a single warm-up game. The recently concluded series in England are prime examples where West Indies and Pakistan both went straight into the Test series without a warm-up game.

In the circumstances there will be very little first-class matches taking place at present other than in a country like England where county cricket has resumed and in Sri Lanka where the remaining domestic matches were completed successfully under strict health guidelines.

Perera at 38 still forms an integral part of the Sri Lanka Test and Colts sides as their key off-spin bowler and as long as he can stay fit, he will be able to trundle his way to the four-figure mark which only three other Sri Lankan bowlers have achieved – Muralitharan, Rangana Herath and Dinuka Hettiarachchi.

Muralitharan and Perera are the exceptions in the left-arm spinners dominated short list which comprises Herath, Hettiarachchi and Sajeewa Weerakoon.

In comparison to Muralitharan (133 Tests), Herath (93) and Perera (41), Hettiarachchi and Weerakoon were hardly picked to play for Sri Lanka despite their prolific wicket-taking ability in domestic cricket. They played only a handful of matches for their country – Hettiarachchi a solitary Test against England at the SSC in 2001 and Weerakoon 2 ODIs against Pakistan in 2012.   

Closing in fast towards the 800-wicket mark is another left-arm spinner Malinda Pushpakumara who at the completion of the 2019-20 first-class season is seven wickets shy of the figure. Pushpakumara is only 33 and has several years of cricket ahead of him. The frequency with which he takes wickets in the domestic circuit should see him reaching 1,000 wickets in a few years’ time.

Pushpakumara finished as the second highest wicket-taker for the season with 50 wickets at a cost of 20.68 and played a major role in helping CCC retain the Premier Tier A league title for another year.

The nearest a fast bowler from Sri Lanka has come to taking 800 first-class wickets is Chaminda Vaas who finished with 772 wickets (avg. 24.64) from 227 matches.

The list should have been quite a long one, but for Sri Lanka Cricket not granting first-class status to matches played during the domestic season of 3 days or more until 1988.