30 years later: When Arjuna Ranatunga got the Australians in the 1996 World Cup final and Aravinda de Silva did the rest | Cricket News
5 min readUpdated: Mar 17, 2026 04:53 PM IST The recently-concluded 2026 T20 World Cup was noteworthy for the kind of performances that countries that were deemed underdogs put in. Sri Lanka in 1996 may have been a Test-playing nation for 14 years but were yet to be taken as serious contenders in the World Cup. The fact that they reached the final itself was seen as an achievement but it was almost exactly what their pugnacious captain, the legendary Arjuna Ranatunga, had wished for earlier in the tournament, right down to who they would face once they get there. Australia had refused to play a match in Colombo earlier in the tournament due to security concerns after which Ranatunga had said: “We want the Australians in the final.” He got exactly that and then, when he won the toss on March 17, 1996, Ranatunga bowled first, hoping that his pacers get some early wickets in the cool conditions at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. It was the first day-night match to be played in …
