Kaluvitharana is a free spirit who cares little for anyone's mood. He walks in whistling, fresh after a bath and ready to rub it in. "Really, you middle order guys have been absolutely hopeless here. I give you an opening stand of 70 with Sanath and you just blow it all up like this.." He picks up his neatly packed wicket keeping kit and leaves for the team bus where Jayasuriya is already waiting.

Kalu's quip serves its purpose soon enough. There is an outburst from Arjuna and some of the cricketers hear the filthiest expletives of their lives from their portly skipper who generally reserves them for the tours Down Under. Steam let off, Arjuna comes back to sanity and picks up his kit. The 2 remaining pizzas are neatly rolled up in a napkin and pocketed before he departs.

The others start packing up their coffins. One of them has a thought and mumbles, "By the way how much did Kalu score out of that 70 run stand?"

ST Jayasuriya c Saeed Anwar b Waqar Younis 76 (28 balls)
RS Kaluwitharana b Aaqib Javed 0 (11 ballls)

Having scored the fastest ODI fifty of all time off 17 balls, Jayasuriya was not out at 66 off 22 balls when Kalu departed with the team score at 70.

Information regarding further events of the day of that Singer Cup final remained within the Sri Lankan camp and was never divulged to the press.

[This is an old report that somehow got misplaced during transmission.]
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Tailpiece: Jayasuriya reportedly starts recounting this incident at the pavilion during the First Test versus the same opponents at Faisalabad in Oct 2004. But midway through the narration skipper Atapattu, passing by, whispers something into his ears and Jayasuriya never utters another word.

Apparently his 101 run stand with Dilhara Fernando served as a bottle-opener that smashing Sanath could not resist. But Dilhara scores a run more than Kalu did, and that makes all the difference. Sri Lanka wins the Test.

Cricket is a team game - but sometimes Jaysuriya virtually batted alone. Still Srilanka did not think about calling a general strike when this anded match-winning all rounder (Jay suriya has a little better bowling average than sourav) was dropped.

Back in the mid-nineties when I was working in Jakarta, Indonesia, I made a point of blowing all my money on a Christmas trip to see my friend Gurdev Singh in Melbourne and to attend the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, this I did for 4 years straight. What I remember about that Sri Lanka tour were 2 things; listening on the radio while the commentator did not realize that Murali was called for chucking, he thought it was overstepping, and was much slower than the crowd, who already knew by then and the murmurs were rising and rising...
Second memory was the Sri Lankans refusing to shake the hands of the Aussies after the second Final of the ODI series-( Good for them ) they got their revenge a few months later, but my happiest memory was seeing a little guy come out to bat at no.7 and thinking, hey , this fella can bat a bit, My friend and I moved from our customary position, just left of the sightscreen, and proceeded to the Midwicket area, while the little fella blasted the Aussies for a 50 in what seemed like 20 minutes.
It was Kaluwitharana's fist Test 50. A few months later he was opening and the rest, well you know the rest..

Jayasuriya - he is the Clint Eastwood of One Day Cricket. He was appointed as Dirty Harry by Arjuna, but he became the Million Dollar Baby who reached Where (only) Eagles Dare. Now he is In the Line of Fire. Let's see if he can come back or remains Unforgiven.
Some day I would like to jot down a number of unique records in cricket, many of unconventional nature, that I think will never be beaten. And this batting all-rounder from Matara may be the holder of quite a few.