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#OTD in 1997 | Sanath Jayasuriya slammed Indian bowlers to hit 151* off 120 balls

On this day, one of the finest opening batters to grace the cricket field, Sanath Jayasuriya, slammed 151* off 120 balls against India on 17th May 1997 in the Independence Cup game in Mumbai.


Jayasuriya established himself as the potent striker at the top-order in the 1996 World Cup and used an attacking mindset in the first 15 overs, which propelled the team to have a good start in most of the games in the ODIs. 


A year before this fixture, the southpaw scored 76 off 28 balls against Pakistan in one of the fixtures of the Singer Cup. Then, he registered a 48-ball hundred against the same opponents in the same series. He certainly was the biggest nightmare for the bowlers with such a reputation. 


Coming to the 1997 Pepsi Independence Cup fixture, the Indian team elected to bat first. However, in quick succession, they had a bad start with Sourav Ganguly (0) and Sachin Tendulkar (2). It was the knocks from Rahul Dravid (61), Ajay Jadeja (72), and Robin Singh (51) which helped India to post a respectable total of 225 on the board. 


The fast bowler Abey Kuruvilla in the second half dismissed the wicket-keeper Romesh Kaluwitharana for a duck. This forced Jayasuriya to play cautiously in the first few overs but made full use of anything widish on the off-stump and his pads. The number three batter Marvan Atappatu was sensible to play second fiddle to Jayasuriya's exploits at the other end. 

The likes of Sunil Joshi and Robin Singh were hammered consistently by Jayasuriya. The captain Sachin Tendulkar seemed depleted of bowling options to stop the wrath of the dashing batter. The quick wickets from Anil Kumble to dismiss Atapattu (38) and Aravinda de Silva (0) provided a respite to the Indian team. 


However, Jayasuriya continued his attacking mindset to score runs all around the park and got support from the captain Arjuna Ranatunga (17). Finally, in the 41st over of the match, Sri Lanka chased down the score and won the game by 5 wickets, with Jayasuriya remaining unbeaten on 151* off 120 balls, comprising 17 boundaries and four sixes.


Ahead of this fixture, Sri Lanka had lost their opening game to Pakistan, and they needed to get a win under their belt. After gaining confidence from this win, Sri Lanka won the tournament by securing victory in both the Final fixtures against Pakistan. The tournament's leading run-scorer was Jayasuriya, with 306 runs in five innings. 


Jayasuriya's knock of 151* remained the highest individual score in ODIs by any Sri Lanka batter until 2000, when he broke his own record by scoring 189 off 161 balls against the same opponents.


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