Canadian cricket team in Sri Lanka in 2000–01

The Canada national cricket team toured Sri Lanka in May 2001 season and played eight one-day matches against various provincial teams in Colombo, Galle, Moratuwa and Gampaha.

External sources

CricketArchive

References

• Wisden Cricketers Almanack

Canada faced Sri Lanka in the 18th World Cup match in 2003 at the Bolon Park in South Africa. Going in Sri Lanka were the favorites to win because Canada does not play as many international matches as Sri Lanka does during a calendar year. Sri Lanka had won the toss and elected to field first knowing the pitch would support the Sri Lankan bowlers against the low experience of Canadian Batsman. The squads for the match was: Desmond Chumney, John Davison, Fazil Sattaur, Ian Billcliff, NA de Groot, JV Harris (captain), Ishwar Maraj, Ashish Bagai (Wicket Keeper), Sanjayan Thuraisingam, Austin Codrington and debutante Barry Seebaran. This was the Canadian squad. The following was the Sri Lankan squad; Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya (captain), Kumar Sangakara (Wicket Keeper), Aravinda de Silva, Mahela Jayawardene, Hashan Tillakaratne, Russel Arnold, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando and Prabath Nissanka. When the match started the difference in experience was clearly evident as the Canadian batsman where finding it difficult to play the well experienced Sri Lankan bowlers. Canadian batsman were losing wickets at a fast rate and eventually were all out for 36 in 18.4 overs after 1 hour and 27 mins (84 min), setting what was the world record of the lowest score in the history of One day International (ODI) Cricket which was previously achieved by Zimbabwe who got all out for 35 against Sri Lanka. Canadian Batsman struggled to score in double digits, as six out of the eleven batsman were out for ducks which is also known as 0 runs. The remaining five players struggled to score in a high pressured match. The highest score by the Canadian Batsmans was 9 by both the opener Desmond Chumney and sixth down batsman Joe Harris. Ashish Bagai and Sanjayan Thuraisingam both scored 6 runs, and Ian Billcliff scored only 1 run. The Sri Lankan Bowlers themselves found it to be very comfortable to bowl against the Canadian batsman. Four bowlers were used by Sri Lanka and all of them bowled extremely well; Chaminda Vaas: 7-4-15-3, Prabath Nissanka: 7-1-12-4, Muttiah Muralitharan: 2.4-0-3-1 and Dilhara Fernando: 2-0-4-2. Order of stats being, overs, maidens, runs given away, and wickets. The target by Canada caused no issue for the Sri Lankan batsman. They chased the target in 4.4 overs in only 18 minutes with the loss of only 1 wicket. Opening batsman Marvan Atapattu scored 24 of 14 balls, second opener Sanath Jayasuriya scored 9 of 10 before getting out and one down batsman Kumar Sanagakara scored 4 of 6 balls remaining not out. Only two bowlers bowled for the Canadian team; Sanjayan Thuraisingam: 2.4-0-22-1 and John Davison: 2-0-15-0. The bowlers did not have a solid total to defend and the lack of experience from the team was exposed to Sri Lanka who were able to cruise with confidence. After the match Prabath Nissanka won man of the match for his tremendous bowling figures of 7-1-14-4 which was a big factor in giving Sri Lanka a very small score to score.