After a stunning performance against India in the 1st ODI, Dunith Wellalage opened up on the reason behind his magnificent batting on Friday.
All-rounder Dunith Wellalage displayed magnificent batting on Friday and was awarded the Player of the Match at R. Premadasa Stadium. He played an unbeaten knock of 67 runs including seven boundaries and two sixes. He also bagged two wickets in a nine-over spell where he conceded 29 runs and bowled a maiden over.
“They have a lot of experienced bowlers, so the more we can limit our mistakes, the more we can put pressure on them. I was watching Pathum Nissanka bat quite a lot. I put his batting in my mind as I came up with a plan. If you take the pitch, it supported spin bowling. I tried to put as much pressure on the bowler and build partnerships,” said Wellalage.
Winning the toss, Sri Lanka decided to bat considering the pitch conditions at R. Premadasa Stadium.
Opening for Sri Lanka Pathum Nissaka put a solid start for the hosts with 56 runs from 75 deliveries and Avishka Fernando was sent out for 1 run. Siraj picked the first wicket for India in the third over. With Axar Patel, Dube, and Kuldeep Yadav crumbling top and middle order, Sri Lanka lost six wickets for 142 runs. Sundar picked an important wicket of Nissanka in the 27 over.
Dunith Wellalage came to the rescue smashing 67* runs in the match. Akila Dananjaya joined hands with Dunith in the death overs giving a stunning knock to take Sri Lanka crossing the 200-run mark.
Axar Patel led the bowling attack as he bagged two wickets and conceded only 33 runs in 10-over spells. Notably, Shubman Gill came to bowl and gave 14 runs in an over spell and Sri Lanka scored 230 runs by the end of 50 overs.
Rohit Sharma provided a fresh start for the side after his T20I retirement announcement by the end of the T20 World Cup campaign. He smashed 58 runs on 47 deliveries before Wellalage picked his wicket.
Hasaranga picked three wickets including the wicket of Virat Kohli for 24 runs on 34 balls. KL Rahul forged with Axar Patel for a 57-run partnership to balance the innings. He tried a slog sweep where Hasaranga picked the midwicket for 31 runs. Shreyas Iyer scored 23 runs before being dismissed by Fernando.
Shivam Dube and Arshdeep Singh were dismissed in successive balls, leaving the crowd grooving to his tunes. India needed only five runs with just two wickets in hand when Dube was switching to spin-hitting mode.
He picked a six from Wanindu Hasaranga’s delivery. Asalanka had the option to bring on Asitha Fernando or debutant Mohamed Shiraz.
After playing out the first two balls of the 48th over, Dube smashed the third ball through the covers and tied the scores. Asalanka picked the wicket of Dube on a lbw on the next ball for 25 runs.
Dube was not given out, but Asalanka went for review which turned out to be successful. Asalanka picked Arshdeep’s wicket for a duck on the successive ball on lbw. Asalanka had darted in another slide from around the wicket.
Arshdeep went for a sweep but missed and was trapped in front which resulted in India losing all 10 wickets for 230 runs. The second ODI match will be played on August 04 at Premadasa Stadium.
