Colombo’s bowler Dunith Wellalage continued his extraordinary form in the Sri Lanka versus Afghanistan series and played a match winning knock of not out 31 in just 21 to help his side the level the series 1-1.
In a do or die match, where the hosts Sri Lanka were way behind the winning score as they lost 6 wickets at a score of 249, and required more 65 in just 41, with only Charith Asalanka was there as a proper batter.
Wellalage made Asalanka’s work easy with his flawless batting, no one in the Afghan’s team were prepared for his batting, as he came out of syllabus for them.
Playing in his sixth ODI match, Wellalage stepped in to the middle when Sri Lanka was in trouble of losing the match and the series, but he made sure to hand Sri Lanka a victory by providing support to Asalanka, and played an unbeaten knock of 31 in just 21.
Before we talk about his match-winning knock, let’s learn more about him.
Who is Dunith Wellalage?
Dunith Wellalage is a Sri Lankan player, who made his debut for the Sri Lanka side in June 2022 after a decent run as a skipper and a solid campaign as a player in the ICC U-19 World Cup 2022.
He picked 5 wickets in his first U-19 game, and repeated the same in the second game too, received the player of the match in both the games and completed the event as the highest wicket taker with 17 wickets. He not just stopped with the bowling, as he collected good number of runs with the bat and ended the tournament as the seventh highest run-scorer in the tournament.
Sri Lanka was in a tough group with Australia, West Indies and Scotland, but despite that he led the team to top the table in the group stage of the ICC U-19 World Cup 2022.
He then scored a century in the Super League playoff game against South Africa to become the first Sri Lankan captain to score a century in the U-19 World Cup.
His took the steps towards international cricket with a selection in Sri Lanka’s emerging team squad for the England tour in April 2022 and soon he named in the ODI squad and made his ODI debut in the same home series against Australia. While he was added to Sri Lanka’s squad for the second test against Australia in the same month.
He is a familiar name in the domestic cricket of Sri Lanka and known for taking wickets consistently.
On November 30, in a do or die match between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, he once again grabbed everyone attention by playing a match saving knock of 31* in just 21.
Dunith Wellalage stats
He just 1 test so far, in which he went wicket less, and recorded 29 runs with the bat. His ODI career is quite satisfactory as he took 9 wickets in 6 games, and scored 74 runs too, including a series saving knock in his last match.
Wellalage’s first class stats are nothing sort of impressive, as in 22 games, he scalped 71 wickets with the bowl and scored 682 runs with the bat.
This is just the beginning of the young star, as he is yet to achieve so many praises in world cricket.
