COLOMBO: A star is reborn. Sri Lankan batsman and Nondescripts Cricket Club (NCC) captain Angelo Perera has taken world cricket by storm, becoming only the second player in history to score two double-centuries in the same first-class game.
The right-hander accomplished the rare feat recently against neighbours Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in their 4-day Premier League Tier A Super 8 match played at the P. Sara Oval.
Both of the 28-year-old’s double-hundreds were fast-scoring performances, the first – 201 off 203 – coming at almost a run a ball, and the second only marginally slower, a 268-ball 231. Perera smashed 40 boundaries and four sixes in total at quick strike rates of 99.01 and 86.19, respectively.
The game was a high-scoring affair with three other batsmen across both sides scoring centuries, and just 26 wickets falling across the four days as the match petered out into a draw. Both NCC and SSC are renowned for producing many of Sri Lanka’s world-class cricketers.
Perera’s two towering knocks also came against a strong SSC attack, featuring former Test bowlers Dhammika Prasad and Sachithra Senanayake. Coming into bat at No.5, Perera’s score of 201 on Friday, 1st February laid the foundation for his side to post a total of 444 in the first-innings to which SSC responded with 480. His second double hundred in particular was important to his side’s hopes, coming at a time when NCC was struggling at 44/3 in their second innings. Perera established a 267-run stand with Pathum Nissanka (167) before pushing on to 231 to put his name in the record books, and helping NCC score 579-6 in their second innings on the final day on Sunday, 3 February.
In nearly 200 years of first class cricket before this, Perera is only the second cricketer ever to achieve this feat, the first being way back over 80 years ago when Kent batsman Arthur Fagg, then 23 years of age, struck 244 and 202 not out against Essex, in Colchester in 1938.
Perera’s efforts come in a Premier League season that has been awash in double-centuries. So far, 14 double-tons have been hit, with Kaushal Silva making the top score of 274. Perera is the only batsman to hit more than one so far.
Perera, the former St Peter’s College Bambalapitiya cricket captain, played four ODIs and two T20Is for Sri Lanka between 2013 and 2016 without much success, having made his international debut in March 2013 in a T20 International natch between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The highly-rated middle order batsman and left arm orthodox bowler, who is currently enjoying one of his best domestic seasons including a superb 127 for Sri Lanka’ A’ in the first unofficial test against Ireland ‘A’ at Hambantota, is still fighting for a permanent place in the Sri Lanka team. However, his record-breaking knock should put him in contention for the national side, at a time when the country is not faring too well in international cricket, having just been outclassed by hosts Australia in the two match Test series.
“Actually I had no clue about the record,” Perera told veteran cricket writer Sa’adi Thawfeeq of the ‘Daily News’. “To be honest I was not aware of the record. It was only after the game that my coach told me.”
Perera, whose father Nalin Perera is the former St Joseph’s College ruggerite and present CEO of Mobitel, the national mobile provider in the country, said his biggest source of encouragement is his 80-year-old grandfather Sivananda Raja, who follows the career of this rising star closely.
Has tying the nuptial knot last year brought him a change of fortune and luck? “I don’t know. But I always believe that there is a power above me. I believe in God and there is always a correct time for everything,” Thawfeeq quoted Perera as saying.
