| 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 | |