In his 16-year international career, Kapil Dev has taken 687 wickets, of which he has taken 434 wickets in Test cricket. His 432nd victim in this format of cricket was Hasan Tillakaratne of Sri Lanka. Now you say why suddenly there is a need to talk about Kapil Dev’s 432nd hunt? So because Kapil did this hunt 30 years ago on February 8. This was the time when Hasan Tillakaratne was one of the big players in Sri Lankan cricket. When Kapil was in the last year of his international career.
That Test between India and Sri Lanka began on 8 February 1994 in Ahmedabad, with Kapil Dev taking his 432nd wicket as Hasan Tillakaratne. In that Test, the Sri Lankan team came to bat first and in the very first innings, Kapil dismissed Hasan Tillakaratne. Hasan could score only 5 runs in that innings.
Hasan Tillakaratne made his Test debut against Australia. When he made his ODI debut against India. His career spanned 15 years. He also captained Sri Lanka during this period. But, the way his career ended was very painful.
In fact, once Hasan Tillakaratne was out of the team, he never made it back into the team. This happened in 2004 when Sri Lanka resigned from his Test captaincy after a 0-3 home series defeat against Australia. After this resignation, he was also dropped from the Test team and he failed to make a place in the team again. Two years later in 2006, he announced his retirement from all formats of cricket and started focusing on coaching.
Hasan Tillakaratne, who became Kapil Dev’s 432nd victim, played 83 matches in his Test career, scoring 4545 runs with 11 centuries, including his best score of 204 not out. He is the first Sri Lankan batsman to score a Test century on South African soil. Hasan Tillakaratne also played 200 ODIs for Sri Lanka.
