The Dilscoop

One of the names given to a novel batting stroke favored by the Sri Lankan cricketer Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Reporting on the frenzy surrounding Sri Lankan cricketer Tillakaratne Dilshan’s unorthodox batting technique at the recent World Twenty20 Cricket Championship, The Guardian’s Tom Lamont wrote:

Dilshan’s overhead scoop-shot, a sensation at the World Twenty20, was matched only in audacity and innovation by the mad flurry of suggestions for the new technique’s name. The more the Sri Lankan batsman used the move (in which he drops to one knee and hits the ball directly over his own ducked head) the louder pundits clamoured for immortality.

Lamont cited a plethora of offerings:

The Dilshan Special, suggested BBC commentator Ranil Abeynaike, his colleague Nasser Hussain abbreviating it to The Dilshan. An excited Phil Tufnell put forth The Dilshan Duck Paddle on his radio show, then The Tillakaratne Turtle; the Times followed in an alliterative vein, proposing Perpendicular Perfection, as did Wisden with The Dilshan Dentist Shot. The Guardian went literal, suggesting The Dilshan Ramp, while the Daily Mirror plied the other end of the technical spectrum with The Frying Pan Scoop. Cricketer John Mooney of Ireland replicated the move against New Zealand, prompting the Daily Telegraph to label it The Mooney Shot … but by then it was too late.

According to Lamont, although The Dilscoop – coined by Sri Lankan cricket statistician Mahendra Mapagunaratne – was the name that stuck with the media, it may not be truly authentic:

“The Dilscoop” seemed to have won the name race – until Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene came forward with some inside information. “In our dressing room it will always be The Starfish,” he said. “You have to have no brains to be playing a shot like that.”