Percy's adventure in the 1996 Cricket World cup Semi final

Disappointed Indian crowd.

Underdog Sri Lanka did really well to reach the semis in 96 World cup. Nobody believed Sri Lanka could win the trophy until that big semifinal against India was won. India had a decent playing eleven to win a world cup. By this time Tendulkar was showing the signs of becoming a legend, while the rest played around him. The form of the Indian team would have created big hopes in Indian hearts.

After showing some extraordinary batting skills, Sanath and Kaluwitharane were in  a mood to thrash Indians out of the competition from the first ball. Ranathunge, Aravinda and Gurusinghe made the Lankan middle order looks very solid.

Azar, Indian captain won the toss and invited Sri Lanka to bat first. But all of a sudden both Kaluwitharane and Sanath Jayasooriya were sent back to the hutch by Srinath in his first over. Then came the world cup hero Aravinda who scored a classy 66 runs with pulls, cover drives and all. Mahanama, Ranatunge, Thilakarathne made decent contributions to bring Sri Lanka to the competitive total of 251.

The reason for India to bowl first was the doubt created by Sanath and Kalu. They believed even a score of 300 would not be enough to defend in the presence of Sanath and Kalu. But still a score of 251 was chasable with in-form Sachin Tendulkar and Vinodh Kambli. 

Although the wickets were fallen down quickly, Indians still had hopes as Sachin was still at the middle. All of a sudden a close LBW shout by Chaminda Vass was turned down by the umpire. ( It was a dead right appeal, but was given not out) 

But then the magic stumping by Kaluwitharane departed Sachin from the middle and then Sri Lankans knew they were going for a World cup final. 

But the Indians...

Crowd in the Eaden garden couldn't bare the feelings of a defeat, so they started throwing water bottles at Sri Lankan fielders. This is one of the rare black stains in Cricket and the game was awarded to Sri Lanka.

But there's some thing most of the people don't know. 

There were two Sri Lankans in the stadium surrounded by hundred thousand of Indians. Who were they? One of them was Mr. Percy who had been ragged by the Indian crowd in the middle of the conflict. Some how Arjuna Ranathunge  had seen Percy and the other guy. Arjuna had rescued and taken Percy and his friend back to the hotel. 

Ranathunge is such a leading character who brought us the World up in 1996, during a period even the Sri Lankans didn't believe we could win a World cup.