Test Cricket Tours Sri Lanka to New Zealand 1994-95

Test Cricket Tours - Sri Lanka to New Zealand 1994-95

Tour of New Zealand 1994-95              Captain: Arjuna Ranatunga

© Test Cricket Tours

Sri Lanka’s sixteenth Test tour
(February - April 1995)

Third Test-playing tour of New Zealand by Sri Lanka
(previous Test tour 1990/91)

This tour brought Sri Lanka its debut series win outside the Pearl Island. In the First Test at Napier the Sri Lankans gained their maiden Test match victory away from home, thanks particularly to Chaminda Vaas's 10 for 90 on a green pitch. Vaas took six more wickets at Dunedin where determined Sri Lankan batting forced a draw and made safe the first overseas series win.

Other Sri Lankan Tours

Previous tour
To Zimbabwe 1994-95

Next tour
To Pakistan 1995-96

Next tour of New Zealand
1997-97

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen:Asanka Gurusinha, Dulip Samaraweera, Chaminda Mendis.
Middle-order batsmen: Aravinda de Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanjeewa Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Hashan Tillekeratne (wk)
Wicket-keeper Chamara Dunusinghe
Spin bowlers: Muttiah Muralitharan, Ruwan Kalpage, Jayantha Silva
Fast bowlers:  Ravindra Pushpakumara, Janak Gamage, Chaminda Vaas, Pramodya Wickremasinghe

P A de Silva
NCC
29
RHB vice-captain
ODI

C I Dunusinghe
Ant
24
WK
ODI

J C Gamage
Ga
20
RFM
ODI

A P Gurusinha
SSC
28
LHB opener
ODI

S T Jayasuriya
Bf'd
25
LHB opener   SLA
ODI

R S Kalpage
Bf'd
25
OB
ODI

M C Mendis
Ct
26
RHB
ODI

M Muralitharan
T U
22
OB
ODI

K R Pushpakumara
NCC
19
RFM
ODI

A Ranatunga
SSC
31
LHB captain
ODI

S Ranatunga
NCC
25
LHB
ODI

D P Samaraweera
Ct
23
RHB opener
ODI

K J Silva
Bf'd
21
SLA
ODI

H P Tillekeratne
NCC
27
LHB second WK
ODI

C U Vaas
Ct
21
LFM
ODI

G P Wickremasinghe
SSC
23
RFM
ODI

Average age of team at time of first Test match
(11 March 1995) :
   24 yrs 9 months.

Representation of clubs :
Ant: Antonians (1)
B'fd: Bloomfield (3)
Ct: Colts Cricket Club (3)
Ga Galle (1)
NCC: Nondescripts (4)
SSC: Sinhalese Sports Club (3)
TU: Tamil Union (1)

Key to type :
LHB left-hand bat,
LBG leg break and googly bowler,
OB off break,
SLA slow left-arm bowler,
RFM right arm fast medium bowler

Test Appearances made before the tour

Arjuna Ranatunga 54, de Silva 46, Gurusinha 31, Tillekeratne 28, Jayasuriya 16, Muralitharan 16, Wickremasinghe 15, Kalpage 8, Samaraweera 5, Sajeewa Ranatunga 4, Vaas 4, Pushpakumara 3, Dunusinghe 0, Gamage 0, Mendis 0, Silva 0.

Tour Officials

Neil Perera
Tour Manager
T B Kehelgamuwa
Cricket manager
Dan Kiesel
Physiotherapist

Ranjith Fernando said after the South African tour that he was unavailable for New Zealand having family and business commitments to attend to. The managers were appointed on 18 January 1995. Perera was appointed over Paranathala by 9 votes to 6. Kehelgamuwa was appointed coach again; Roy Dias and DS de Silva were also contenders but were unable to take up the role of coach then as they were involved in the over-35s Masters tournament.

Selectors

Duleep Mendis (Chair of Selectors), Roy Dias, T B Kehelgumuwa, Ranjan Madugalle.

Selection

Unavailable: -

No pool was named for the tour squad but the selectors would select according to performances in the Sara Trophy tournament.

Tour Party Announced : 26 January 1995.
The 16-man team would be pruned down to 14 for the Sharjah section of the tour.

Stand-bys :   Russel Arnold (NCC), R S Kaluwitharana (Galle), W Labrooy (NCC), S Jayantha (Singla SC), Indika de Saram (Tamil Union), C M Mendis (Colts),   H Wickremaratne (SSC).

Withdrawal: On 31 January Roshan Mahanama (Bloomfield) withdrew because of his unhealed rib injury rather than hope to join the tour later. Either Russel Arnold or Chaminda Mendis could replace him and the choice fell on Mendis after both players faced a battery of fast bowlers in the nets, watched by Duleep Mendis and the other selectors.

Time between selection and departure from Sri Lanka
25 days
(26 January to 20 February)

Travel
Colombo Q Wellington

The team began practice games at SSC (Maitland Place) on 8 February, and then continued playing in the Sara Trophy.
Departure from Colombo was on 20 February 1995.

Time spent in New Zealand
   40 days
(21 February - 2 April)

Reinforcements

None

Fixtures/Results

a
� New Plymouth
New Zealand Academy XI (50 overs)
No result
b
Wanganui
New Zealand XI
Drawn
c
Palmerston North
New Zealand Academy XI
Won 242 r
d
NAPIER
NEW ZEALAND First Test
WON 241 r
e
DUNEDIN
NEW ZEALAND Second Test
DRAWN
f
� Christchurch
Canterbury (50 overs)
Won 5 w
g
§ Christchurch
New Zealand (1st ODI)
Lost 33 r
h
§ Hamilton
New Zealand (2nd ODI)
Lost scoring rate
i
§ Auckland
New Zealand (3rd ODI)
Won 51 r

Test appearances on tour

2 -   Dunusinghe, de Silva, Gurusinha, Muralitharan, Pushpakumara, A Ranatunga, S Ranatunga, Samaraweera, Tillekeratne, Vaas, Wickremasinghe.
0 -   Gamage, Jayasuriya, Kalpage, Mendis, Silva.

Match appearances

T Test match
o one-day international
x other match
⊕ T/20 international
-   teams not announced

W won L lost D drawn T tie
N no result   A abandoned
u unknown result C cancelled

a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
P A de Silva
x
x
x
T
T
x
o
o
o
C I Dunusinghe
x
x
x
T
T
x

J C Gamage
x
x
x

x

o
o
A P Gurusinha

x
x
T
T

o
o
o
S T Jayasuriya
x
x

x
o
o
o
R S Kalpage
x

x
o
o
o
M C Mendis
x

x

x

o
M Muralitharan

x
T
T

o
o
o
K R Pushpakumara
x
x

T
T
x
o
o

A Ranatunga

x
T
T

o
o
o
S Ranatunga
x
x
x
T
T
x
o
o
o
D P Samaraweera
x
x
x
T
T
x

KJ Silva

x
x

x
o

H P Tillekeratne
x
x

T
T
x
o
o
o
C U Vaas
x
x

T
T

o
o
o
G P Wickremasinghe

x
T
T

   R E S U L T S
N
D
W
W
D
W
L
L
W

� not first-class
§ one-day international

Time spent in New Zealand before First Test:
   18 days
(21 February - 11 March)

Highlights

• Chamara Dunusinghe, on his debut in Test cricket, top scored with 91 as well as taking seven catches at Napier.
• Chaminda Vaas (10-90 at Napier) became the first Sri Lankan bowler to take ten wickets in a Test match. In a low-scoring match he also played innings of 33* and 36.
• Vaas then scored 51 and took 6-87 in the second Test at Dunedin.
• Gurusinha (127) and Tillekeratne (108) shared a 4th wicket partnership of 192 at Dunedin
• Arjuna Ranatunga scored a rapid 90 as Sri Lanka set New Zealand a target of 338 at Dunedin.

Tour Summary

F
W
L
D
Aban
Test Matches
2
1
0
1
-
Other first-class matches
2
1
0
1
-
ϯ Minor matches
2
1
0
1
-
§ One-day internationals
3
1
2
0
-
All Matches
9
4
2
3
-

F Fixtures   W Won   L Lost   D Drawn   T Tied Canc Cancelled Aban abandoned

Return to Sri Lanka
Auckland Q Sharjah

It was planned that two of the team would not go to Sharjah for the Pepsi Trophy series between 4 and 15 April. But the selectors decided to drop five of them and to add three new players.
C Mendis, R Pushpakumara, S Ranatunga, K J Silva and P Wickremasinghe returned to Sri Lanka.
The rest of the tour group left New Zealand on 2 April. They were joined in Sharjah by Roshan Mahanama, Kumar Dharmasena and Champake Ramanayeke.

Time away from Sri Lanka    x days
(20 February to arrive home NZ)

Postscript

The touring party retained the same two management officials but, as Dav Whatmore had been appointed coach on 30 March 1995, this was the last coaching responsibility for Kehelgamuwa.

Other Test tours in 1994-95

Australians to
England to

© 2015

Acknowledgements
To general reading of The Times newspaper digital archive (Gale Group); Jamaica Gleanor archive; National Library of Australia Trove; Papers Past NZ.
From former British Newspaper Library, Colindale and online: The Age, Melbourne Argus, Bangladesh Daily Star, Barbados Advocate, Canberra Times, Daily Telegraph, Dawn, Eastern Daily Press, The Hindu, The Independent (Dhaka), Indian Express, The Island (Lanka), Lahore Times, New Nation, New Zealand Auckland Herald, Sri Lanka Daily News, Stabroek News, Straits Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The Telegraph (Calcutta), Times of India , The Tribune Chandigarh, Trinidad Guardian, The West Australian.
cricketweb.net; ESPN cricinfo; cricket archive; www.cricketcountry; www.coverpoint
Magazines/periodicals including Australian Cricket, B & H West Indies Annual, The Cricketer International, Cricketer Quarterly, Indian Cricket, Indian Cricket Field Annual, Playfair Cricket Monthly, Shell Cricket Almanack of New Zealand, Wisden Cricket Monthly, Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack.
Men In White, A History of Australian Cricket (Harte), A History of Indian Cricket (Bose), A History of West Indies Cricket (Manley)
Biography and tour books (own collection and at the M.C.C. Library at Lord’s Ground)                                    © ALL CONTENTS OF THE TEST-CRICKET-TOURS.CO.UK WEBSITE ARE COPYRIGHT