Chaminda Vaas Profile by CricketArchive

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Player:

WPUJC Vaas

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DateLine: 20th February 2007

 

Sri Lanka’s finest new ball bowler ever Chaminda Vaas has rendered yeoman service for well over a decade. It is only the phenomenal success of Muthiah Muralitharan that has somewhat camouflaged the outstanding feats that Vaas has performed for the country in both Tests and ODIs. He has taken over 300 wickets in both forms of the game a tribute to his skill and fitness. The left-handed Vaas swings and seams the ball with skill, the late indipper being his most destructive weapon. Penetrative with either old ball or new, Vaas has the full repertoire of the pace bowler’s trade – a slippery bouncer, a deadly yorker, the ability to reverse swing. A well disguised off cutter as well as one that moves away makes him a most difficult bowler to encounter in almost any clime and his vast experience makes him a bowler to be respected and even feared. Vaas has been a consistent wicket taker even on unhelpful sub continental pitches. A hero of the 1996 World Cup triumph Vaas has shrewdly conserved his energy over the years but that has not stopped him from achieving such feats as the best ever figures in ODIs (8 for 19 including a hat trick against Zimbabwe in 2001-02) and taking a hat trick with the first three balls of the match against Bangladesh in the 2003 World Cup or becoming only the second fast bowler after Imran Khan to take 14 wickets in a match in the sub continent – against the West Indies in 2001-02 when he took 26 wickets in the three Tests. His batting has improved over the years and he bids fair to be regarded as an all rounder.