Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslo Mendis (born March 11, 1985 in Moratuwa) is a cricketer who plays for the Sri Lankan national cricket team.
Mendis, although classified as slow-medium, bowls a mixture of deliveries, including googlies, off-breaks, top-spinners, flippers and leg-breaks, as well as the carrom ball, released with a flick of his middle finger. For Sri Lanka Army in 2007-08 he averaged a mere 10.56 and took 46 wickets in six games, his strike rate a startling 31. This gained him a call-up to the full Sri Lanka squad for the Caribbean tour in April 2008.
His best bowling performance in a One Day International came in the final of the 2008 Asia Cup, where he took 6 wickets for 13 runs in just his eighth match. His 17 wickets in the tournament earned him the Man of the Series award.[1]
Mendis made his One Day International debut against the West Indies at Port of Spain in 2008 and took 3 for 39. He also plays for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.
His first Test Match was against India at Colombo on July 23, 2008 in which he returned match figures of 8-132, thereby becoming the first Sri Lankan bowler to get an eight-wicket haul on Test debut.
Ajantha Mendis won the Emerging Player of the Year award at the LG ICC Awards ceremony held in Dubai in September 2008.
On March 3, 2009, the bus that carried the Sri Lankan cricketers to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, for the third day's play of the second Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, was fired at by masked gunmen. Mendis was among seven Sri Lankan cricketers who were injured in the attack, which killed five policemen who guarded the bus.[2]
On August 6, 2010, Mendis scored his maiden half century, 78 against India. Notably he faced the most balls of all the batsmen in the innings, something rare for a number 10 batsman.
ODI five-wicket matches
ODI Five-wicket Matches
# Match Figures Match Against City/Country Venue Season
1 5/22 5 UAE Lahore, Pakistan Gaddafi Stadium 2008
2 6/13 8 India Karachi, Pakistan National Stadium 2008
3 6/29 17 Zimbabwe Harare, Zimbabwe Harare Sports Club 2008
He has also broken fastest 50 wicket record in ODI, previously held by Ajit Agarkar of India for 23 matches. He broke the record by snatching 50 wickets in just 19 matches.
[edit]Test cricket
Ajantha Mendis made his debut in Test cricket against India in at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, on 23 July 2008. He claimed his first Test wicket in his fifth over, bowling Rahul Dravid with a delivery now christened the carrom ball, that turned from middle and hit off stump. He went on to claim the wickets of Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan & VVS Laxman to finish with figures of 4 for 72 in his maiden test bowling performance. He followed this up with 4 for 60 in India's second inings. Ajantha Mendis' match figures of 8 for 132 are the best by any Sri Lankan bowler on Test debut, bettering Kuruppurachchi's 7 for 85 against Pakistan in 1985-86. After the game Muttiah Muralitharan stated that "When I started playing Test cricket, I was not as good as Mendis. He is exceptional. He is the future of Sri Lankan cricket,". Mendis collected his first ten-wicket haul in the very next match, which Sri Lanka went on to lose. With 26 wickets (ave.18.38) in the series, Mendis has passed Alec Bedser's world record for most wickets by a bowler on his debut in a three-Test series.[10][11] Ajantha Mendis won the player of the series award for his efforts. On August 6, 2010 during the three-Test series against India, Mendis scored 78.
[edit]Test five-wicket innings
Test Five-wicket Innings
# Match Figures Match Against City/Country Venue Season
1 6/117 2 India Galle, Sri Lanka Galle International Stadium 2008
2 5/56 3 India Colombo, Sri Lanka P. Saravanamuttu Stadium 2008
[edit]Twenty20 cricket
On 10 October 2008, Ajantha Mendis made his Twenty20 debut against
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Mendis 8 wickets on debutby thebestpaki26,933 views
@chowhan13 me too :D
ashishtajane 6 months ago
i'm here becuase of dravid!
chowhan13 6 months ago 5