Upul Tharanga

Upul Tharanga
උපුල් තරංග

Personal information
Full name	Warushavithana Upul Tharanga
Born	(1985-02-02) 2 February 1985 Balapitiya, Sri Lanka
Nickname	Upula
Height
Batting style	Left-handed
Role	Opening batsman
International information
National side	Sri Lanka
Test debut (cap 103)	18 December 2005 v India
Last Test	28 Aug -1 September 2015 v India
ODI debut (cap 125)	2 August 2005 v West Indies
Last ODI	19 July 2015 v Pakistan
T20I debut (cap 11)	15 June 2006 v England
Last T20I	7 August 2012 v India
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2000–01	Singha Sports Club
2003–present	Nondescripts Cricket Club
2007–present	Ruhuna
2014	Kandurata Maroons
Career statistics
Competition Tests ODIs FC LA Matches 21 180 117 292 Runs scored 1,117 5,407 7,342 8,933 Batting average 30.18 33.17 39.05 33.33 100s/50s 1/5 13/28 17/28 20/50 Top score 165 174* 265* 174* Balls bowled – – 18 – Wickets – – 0 – Bowling average – – – – 5 wickets in innings – – 0 – 10 wickets in match – – 0 – Best bowling – – 0/4 – Catches/stumpings 17/– 33/– 84/1 77/2
Source: Cricinfo, 1 September 2015

Warushavithana Upul Tharanga (born 2 February 1985), commonly known as Upul Tharanga (Sinhalese: උපුල් තරංග), is a Sri Lankan cricketer. He is a left-handed opening batsman and occasional wicket-keeper.

Early life

Upul Tharanga had his education at Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda. He started his cricket career as a teenager at his school. Having played for Nondescripts since the age of 15, he played for Sri Lanka's under-15, under-17 and under-19 squads. He had a successful under-19 World Cup in 2004 with successful innings of 117 and 61 in successive games. He was sent by the Sri Lankan cricketing board to play league cricket for Loughton Cricket Club in Essex.

Tharanga's Sri Lankan call-up in July 2005 made for a mixed 2005, after his family home was washed away by the Asian tsunami. His equipment, which was also washed away, was replaced by Kumar Sangakkara. Tharanga graduated to the "A" team and in July he was selected for the full squad.

International career

On the 2006 tour of England he really began to develop, particularly in the one-day game, scoring over 300 runs in Sri Lanka's 5–0 whitewash of the hosts. In addition, Tharanga is also well known for taking part in a record-breaking first wicket partnership with Sanath Jayasuriya in the final match of this series. He finished off with 109 off 102 balls, and played a pivotal role in completing the whitewash against England.

Tharanga lost his form in the 2007 World Cup scoring only one half century (against New Zealand) he then continued his poor run of form in the home series against England in 2007 where he failed to contribute and often fell before the 10th over often resulting in a middle-order collapse. Subsequently he lost his ODI place to Malinda Warnapura and his test place to Michael Vandort but he remains within the squad.

However, in the 2011 World Cup, he is back to performing remarkably. In the quarter-final game against England, his partnership with Dilshan could not be pierced. Together they wrapped up the game, each acquiring centuries. His strong form has returned him to the opening position in the strong Sri-Lankan batting line up.

He has also come in for special praise from Jayasuriya, one of the greats of cricket, saying that he could be the next captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team.

Upul Tharanga is the second batsman in the world who was involved with 7 times 200+ partnerships in ODI cricket. The only other player to achieve this feat is Ricky Ponting.

On 2 July 2013, Upul Tharanga scored the second highest ODI score of 174* by a Sri Lankan only behind Sanath Jayasuriya who scored 189 against India. With that innings he became the 9th Sri Lankan player to pass 5000 runs margin. Despite of his low match participation, he has earned 13 centuries and 11 man of the match titles for his name throughout his international career.

After 8 years of scarcity for Test cricket, Tharanga was called to the third Test match against Pakistan in 3 July 2015. He was used as the replacement for Kumar Sangakkara who did play for first two Tests, but not to third Test at Kandy, due to his retirement consideration during India tour. He scored 46 runs in the first innings and 48 in the second innings. However, Sri Lanka lost the series by 2-1.

Tharanga, who had a long ODI scarcity, was included to the ODI squad against Pakistan. Due to the retirement of Kumar Sangakkara, the number three position had a vacant and Sri Lanka cricket selected Tharanga for the crucial number three position in ODIs.

Upul Tharanga

Medal record
Men's Cricket
Representing Sri Lanka
Asian Games
	2014 Incheon	Team

Doping violation

A urine sample provided by Tharanga after the world cup semi-final against New Zealand on 29 March 2011 was found to have metabolites of two glucocorticosteroids – prednisone and prednisolone, which are banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Tharanga initially claimed he had taken some medication for asthma and had no idea it was a banned drug.

An independent anti-doping tribunal was convened at which Tharanga pleaded guilty, claiming he had taken some herbal remedy to ease discomfort caused by a long-standing shoulder injury. The tribunal accepted that Tharanga "had no intention to enhance his sporting performance or to mask the use of another performance enhancing substance, but that he had failed to satisfy the high levels of personal responsibility implicit upon him as an international cricketer subject to anti-doping rules". The tribunal found Tharanga guilty of breaching the ICC Anti-Doping Code and banned him from all cricket and cricket-related activities for a three-month period (9 May 2011 to 8 August 2011).

International centuries

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

Test centuries

Upul Tharanga's Test centuries
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Date	Result
[1]	165	3	Bangladesh	Bogra, Bangladesh	Shaheed Chandu Stadium	March 8, 2006	Won by Sri Lanka

One Day International centuries

Upul Tharanga's One Day International centuries
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Date	Result
[1]	105	5	Bangladesh	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R Premadasa Stadium	September 2, 2005	Won by Sri Lanka
[2]	103	12	New Zealand	Christchurch, New Zealand	Jade Stadium	January 3, 2006	Won by New Zealand
[3]	120	23	England	London, England, United Kingdom	Lord's Cricket Ground	June 17, 2006	Won by Sri Lanka
[4]	109	27	England	Leeds, England, United Kingdom	Headingley Stadium	July 1, 2006	Won by Sri Lanka
[5]	105	31	Bangladesh	Chandigarh, India	PCA Stadium	October 7, 2006	Won by Sri Lanka
[6]	121	32	Zimbabwe	Ahmedabad, India	Sardar Patel Stadium	October 10, 2006	Won by Sri Lanka
[7]	118	86	India	Kolkata, India	Eden Gardens	December 24, 2009	Won by India
[8]	118*	90	Bangladesh	Dhaka, Bangladesh	Sher-e-Bangla Stadium	January 8, 2010	Won by Sri Lanka
[9]	101*	111	West Indies	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	February 3, 2011	Won by Sri Lanka
[10]	133	117	Zimbabwe	Kandy, Sri Lanka	Pallekele Cricket Stadium	March 10, 2011	Won by Sri Lanka
[11]	102*	119	England	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R Premadasa Stadium	March 26, 2011	Won by Sri Lanka
[12]	111	139	Australia	Hambantota, Sri Lanka	MRIC Stadium	August 16, 2011	Won by Sri Lanka
[13]	174*	164	India	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	July 2, 2013	Won by Sri Lanka

One-Day International Cricket – Man of the Match Awards

#	Series	Season	Against	Match Performance	Result
1	2nd Match – Bangladesh in Sri Lanka	2005	Bangladesh	105	Sri Lanka Won by 75 runs
2	2nd Match – Sri Lanka in New Zealand	2005–06	New Zealand	103	New Zealand Won by 5 wickets
3	1st ODI – Sri Lanka in England 2006	2006	England	120	Sri Lanka Won by 20 runs
4	1st Qualifying Match – 2006 ICC Champions Trophy	2006	Bangladesh	105	Sri Lanka Won by 37 runs
5	3rd Qualifying Match – 2006 ICC Champions Trophy	2006	Zimbabwe	110	Sri Lanka Won by 144 runs
6	4th Match – Tri-Series in Bangladesh in 2009–10	2009–10	Bangladesh	118 ; 1 Ct.	Sri Lanka Won by 9 wickets
7	2nd Match – Sri Lanka Triangular Series in 2010	2010	New Zealand	70	Sri Lanka Won by 3 wickets
8	2nd Match – Sri Lankan cricket team in Australia in 2010–11	2010–11	Australia	86*	Sri Lanka Won by 29 runs (D/L)
9	2nd Match – West Indian cricket team in Sri Lanka in 2010–11	20011	West Indies	101*	Sri Lanka Won by 8 wickets (D/L)
10	3rd Match – Australian cricket team in Sri Lanka in 2011	2011	Australia	111	Sri Lanka Won by 78 runs
11	3rd Match – West Indies Triangular Series in 2013	2013	India	174* ; 1 Ct.	Sri Lanka Won by 161 runs