Ramanayake cherishes Tendulkar's wicket in Asia Cup final 22 years ago
Champaka Ramanayake
On his last day in office as Sri Lanka bowling coach, Champaka Ramanayake, said he still cherishes Sachin Tendulkar's wicket he took 22 years ago in Sharjah.
It was the 1995 Asia Cup final and Ramanayake had Tendulkar caught by Sanath Jayasuriya for 41 off 41 deliveries as India chased down Sri Lanka's modest total of 230 with more than eight overs to spare and clinched the title.
Interestingly, that was also his last wicket in one-dayers as he never played for Sri Lanka again after that match.
Ramanayake, a talent hunter and a coaching force behind bowlers like Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Pradeep and Nuwan Kulasekara has decided to move on from Cricket Sri Lanka after a 16-year association.
Ramanayake, former Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling coach, is joining Bangladesh from August as a high performance coach.
"Tendulkar's wicket was my last wicket. I got him with a slower ball. He mistimed his drive that went straight up in the air," Champaka, who played in 18 Tests and 68 ODIs, told mid-day.
"It was very big wicket because Tendulkar was at his peak and it was a tough task to bowl at him and an even tougher task to get him out."
Galle is Ramanayake's home and he has played his entire cricket here. But he was disturbed to see the out-and-out batting pitch for the opening Test of the series.
"The wicket in Galle was very flat. Generally, the Galle wicket assists spinners but this time, they [curators] must have made a flat pitch with a purpose," added Ramanayake.
"Still, Nuwan Pradeep bowled well on that flat pitch against a strong batting line-up," he added.
However, he credited the Indian bowling and said: "India have got some really good fast bowlers. With a little assistance they could have played Bhuvneshwar Kumar as well. Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav swung the ball quite well early in the innings. They got (Hardik) Pandya as the third seamer and I think on a flat wicket like the one in Galle, the Indian fast bowlers did exceedingly well," he said.
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