Tillakaratne Dilshan – The Inventor of Dilscoop
Trivia:
Tillakaratne Dilshan used to play tennis ball cricket in the streets of Sri Lanka where there was not much room to play at the either sides of the wickets. The situation forced him to play the ramp shot behind the wickets. During the 2009 IPL, some of the players were playing paddle sweep and scoring heavily. Dilshan also wanted to try the same shot but he decided to play it over the keeper’s head as he used to do on the streets of Sri Lanka in his early days. Later he discussed with coach Chandika Hathurusingha and fine-tuned his scoop shot. He practiced the shot for hours with a tennis ball before the 2009 World T20. Dilshan played the scoop shot against Australia during the first game of the 2009 T20 world Cup and continued to play the same shot in other matches as well. That’s how the Dilscoop came into existence.
Embed from Getty ImagesDilshan said, “I have always wanted to do something special. Millions of people watch cricket and I wanted to have a special place for myself in their hearts. People forget a player after he retires. But I will continue to live through ‘Dilscoop’. That’s why I created this new shot. It totally changed my batting style and gave me a lot of confidence.”
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Featured Image Credit: Amal316 – CC BY-SA 4.0 (resized as per the need)