Army Sergeant Asela Gunaratne Orchestrates Convincing Victory

Sergeant Asela Gunaratne of the Army who orchestrated a convincing win to seal the T20 series for Sri Lanka, stole the dazzling victory over Australia and became the second gunner to represent Test Cricket and the third Army player to represent T20, One Day International (ODI) and Test Cricket. He bagged 84 runs not out against 46 balls in Sunday’s match.

Earlier, following his all round performances in Zimbabwe and Test Cricket (116 runs), the Commander of the Army, impressed with his achievements, promoted him to the rank of Sergeant, effective from 10 Nov 2016 on the recommendations of the Army Cricket Committee.

Army Cricket Committee felicitated him earlier unveiling a photograph of the player at Panagoda.

Sergeant Gunaratne who did it in style in the T20 series, just ended enabled Sri Lanka for the second time in 3 days reach their target from the final ball of their chase after things turned firmly in Sri Lanka’s favour with 48 off 18 balls and then 36 off 12 balls which meant Sri Lanka held a record victory over Australia in T20s, although the third match of the series were to be played on Wednesday (22).

Slowly at first and then quickly at the end Gunaratne brought Sri Lanka back into the game in the last ball of the 20th over scoring 4 runs.

Jubilant Sri Lankan cricket fans in their hundreds poured onto the ground to celebrate winning the series in front of an estimated crowd of 13,647 which had a hefty percentage of Sri Lankans in Australia.

Sergeant Gunaratne, attached to the 6 Field Regiment Sri Lanka Artillery of the Army is an aggressive right-handed batsman who occasionally bowls medium pace.