Jeevan Mendis - Who ?

I had earlier posted one on the Lankan cricketers and their lengthy names – a typical Q in Sports Quiz used to be on somebody having more initials than the name and it was   WKPUJC Vaas (Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda.  I had also written about Welegedera.

Yesterday, Sri Lanka succumbed tamely to England in the 4^th one dayer – during the match in walked a left hander to join Sangakkara when Angelo Matthews ran himself out.

That was Jeevan Mendis – full name being ‘ Balapuwaduge Manukulasuriya Amith Jeevan Mendis’.   This young cricketer has played in 9 onedayers, has taken 9 wicekts and has scored 74 – bowls leg break and bats left handed. 

Not to confuse with the more famous carom ball bowler – Ajantha Mendis – ‘Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslo Mendis’  who bamboozled the Indians in 2008 with his mixture of mixture of googlies, offbreaks, top-spinners, flippers and legbreaks. In a short span Mendis has flummoxed some international batsmen who've played spin pretty well in their careers.  In the Asia Cup, Indians found him more than handful as he took  6 for 13 in his eighth one-day international. His 17 wickets in the tournament duly earned him the Man-of-the-Series.  Indians could sort him out later though and his success rate has slightly waned.  He has so far taken 62 wickets in 16 tests [with 3 5 fors and one 10 for]  and 89 in 52 one dayers.

Regards – S. Sampathkumar.