Seekkuge Prasanna (Sinhala: සීක්කුගේ ප්රසන්න; born 27 June 1985) is a professional Sri Lankancricketer, who plays for limited over cricket. He is a warrant officer in the Sri Lankan Army.[1] Prasanna is known for aggressive batting at the late overs in ODIs, and a useful leg-spinner, probably the best found after former Sri Lanka leg-spinner Upul Chandana. Prasanna was a member of the Sri Lankan team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20.
Prasanna was not in the original squad in 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, but he was called into the World Cup squad as a replacement for injured Dimuth Karunaratne. He played his first World Cup game against Scotland on 11 March 2015.[9]
Power hitting
After dropped from the squad due to poor performances, Prasanna rejoined to the limited over Sri Lanka squad for game against Ireland in 2016. On 18 June 2016, in the second match against Ireland, Prasanna scored a devastating inning which earned him his highest ODI score. He got out for 95 runs just off 45 balls, just fell short for the fastest century for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka scored 377 runs in the match and finally won the match by 136 runs.[10]
His devastating form in Ireland continued in England. During the first ODI against England, Prasanna scored 25 ball 59 runs, including four huge sixes. However, the match ended with a tie.[11] Prasanna scored 95 at strike rate 206.52 against Ireland in last ODI and 59 at 210.71 in this match. With that Prasanna became the third Sri Lanka player after Sanath Jayasuriya and Thisara Perera to make 2 fifty-plus scores at a strike rate of 200-plus in ODIs.[12]
During the third T20I against South Africa in the decider, Prasanna helped Sri Lanka to win the match and seal the series 2–1 by hitting match-winning 16-ball 37 runs in the last overs with three sixes and three fours. This win gave Sri Lankans their first ever series win in any format against South Africa in South Africa as well. This is also Sri Lanka's highest chase in all T20Is.[13]
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Army