Until 1996, pinch-hitting was an unknown phrase for most of the cricketing world. For the rest, it was a phrase associated with baseball. In the subcontinent where baseball is as popular as cricket may be in the USA, this was a totally alien word. For the record, a pinch-hitter is used when all the bases are loaded and a sacrificial striker is sent in to tip-and-run.

It was a complete surprise to most of the teams when in the 1996 World Cup in the subcontinent two cavalier and daredevil opening batsmen from Sri Lanka decided that the cricket ball was their enemy and it just had to go! Routinely averaging over 7 runs per over, Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana redefined the rules of a game that was fast getting predictable.

Before the two exploded on to the scene, one-day cricket had fallen into a rut with even the fielding restrictions in the first fifteen overs failing to yield much change in approach. Most of the excitement in an ODI would come about in the last 8 or 10 overs. Of course such ploys can backfire initially, like it did in Sri Lanka's first match in the 1996 World Cup, against Zimbabwe, when Kalu was dismissed first ball. But then again, pinch-hitting is not about the number of runs scored. It is about setting the pace for the innings and unsettling the opposition not letting them back into the game.

A masterstroke by then Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga saw these two pair up as an opening team. What followed was pure mayhem! Just ask Javagal Srinath and Manoj Probhakar, India's opening pair, who suffered as Kalu hit six fours in his first 15 balls in Delhi before holing out for 26. That game effectively ended Prabhakar's career in international cricket.

But more interesting than that is the fact that Kaluwitharana scored only 73 runs in six innings during the 1996 World Cup. His greater value to the team came through only because he was also a wicketkeeper and freed up a slot for an extra batsman or bowler to balance the team composition.

Kalu, however, was only one half of the destructive duo. His more able partner, Sanath Jayasuriya was carving up attacks across the subcontinent. But what was it about Jayasuriya that bowlers would shake at the sheer sight of him walking out on to the ground? There were many before him who would attack bowlers with perhaps more disdain than him. Viv Richards is a name that readily comes to mind as does Mark Greatbatch's performance in the 1992 World Cup.

What was perhaps different about Jayasuriya is that the attack would never let up. Field restrictions or not, he would continue hitting out. Perhaps unknowingly, Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana changed the face of Sri Lanka Cricket. During the course of their partnership, they both broke many a record, but it was Jayasuriya who made more records than his partner. At one point, he held the record for the fastest fifty in ODIs, a dazzling fifty in just 16 balls off a Pakistani attack at a smallish Padang ground in Singapore.

He also held the record for the fastest hundred in ODIs which was later broken by Shahid Afridi. Among the other records he held, Jayasuriya blasted Chris Harris for 28 runs in an over and that became the record for the most expensive over in ODIs. He has the record for the most number of sixes in a one day innings - 12 in total against Pakistan. One of the more recent records he has taken over, is the top run scorer for Sri Lanka in ODIs surpassing the all-time great, Aravinda de Silva.

More than their individual records, though, it's the collective effort that has made them the enigma they are. They are in the top 10 all-time best opening partnerships and that itself is no mean feat.

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