| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Demuni Nuwan Tharanga Zoysa | |||
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | |||
| Batting style | Left-hand bat | |||
| Bowling style | Left-arm fast-medium | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Competition | Tests | ODIs | ||
| Matches | 71 | 90 | ||
| Runs scored | 1178 | 773 | ||
| Batting average | 15.34 | 13.19 | ||
| 100s/50s | 1/4 | 1/0 | ||
| Top score | 112* | 100 | ||
| Balls bowled | 8876 | 4259 | ||
| Wickets | 200 | 108 | ||
| Bowling average | 67.70 | 29.75 | ||
| 5 wickets in innings | 5 | 1 | ||
| 10 wickets in match | 8 | n/a | ||
| Best bowling | 8/20 | 5/26 | ||
| Catches/stumpings | 45/- | 13/- | ||
| Source: [1], 9 February 2006 | ||||
Demuni Nuwan Tharanga Zoysa (born May 13, 1978 in Colombo) is a Sri Lankan cricketer. He was a lanky left-arm seam bowler, who played 71 Tests and 90 ODI's for Sri Lanka. In his eighth Test, Zoysa became the first player in the history to take a hat-trick off the first three balls of the match. He achieved this against Zimbabwe at Harare in November 1999. In his first three balls of the Test match he took the wickets of Trevor Gripper, Murray Goodwin and Neil Johnson.
Zoysa made his first class debut in 1996/97 and during his first season he took his career best figures of 7 for 58, playing for Sinhalese Sports Club. He made his Test debut soon after in Dunedin against New Zealand. He has gone on to take over 100 ODI wickets for Sri Lanka, the ninth to have achieved the milestone.
An aggressive lower order batsman, Zoysa once won an ODI game against Australia with an unbeaten 47. He was also bought by the Deccan Chargers Franchise in the IPL but he was removed from the team for his poor performances.