Top 6 batting performances of Tillakaratne Dilshan

2) 147, Australia v Sri Lanka, Hobart 2012

Tillakaratne Dilshan scored a magnificent 147 against Australia

Dilshan handled the peaks of ecstasy and the troughs of despair with poise and equanimity. After scaling noteworthy heights in 2011, the opener had to step down as the captain of the national team in January 2012. However, by the end of that year, he again emerged as a winner by crunching a crucial hundred in the first Test against Australia in Hobart.

After the home side had aggregated 450 for 5 declared, the Sri Lankan batsmen were under pressure to prove their mettle in unfamiliar climes. At the forefront of the tourists' fightback was again Dilshan.

He strode out to the middle with a brisk gait and drilled a couple of boundaries off Mitchell Starc. When Nathan Lyon was introduced into the attack, he lofted him into the downtown territories. After the Lunch break on Day 3, the Australian pace attack blended hostility and nagging control, but Dilshan showed the required batting aptitude to shepherd the Sri Lankan middle-order.

After essaying a stroke-filled innings, Dilshan was castled by a yorker from Starc for 147, but by then, he had lifted the spirits of the Sri Lankan camp.