Dunith Wellalage reacts after reaching his half century
Promising Sri Lanka allrounder Dunith Wellalage said he gets his confidence from being able to adjust to a situation whenever he goes to bat or settles in to bowl.
Wellalage was adjudged as the player of the match after Sri Lanka tied the first ODI against India at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Friday night with the scores level at 230.
“I always trust myself and play according to the situation”, said Wellalage after the match having made a top score of 67 not out that helped Sri Lanka reach the total and then accounted for the key wickets of Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill.
“Coach Sanath Jayasuriya told me the pitch was turning and I decided to be there until the last over and get as many runs. We looked at 220 but got 230 and that was a challenging score on this pitch”, said Wellalage who said he took a lesson from the way Pathum Nissanka batted and made a half century.
Wellalage said he had no hesitation when skipper Charith Asalanka called on him to bowl his spinners during the power play in defending the total.
“The turn on the pitch suited by bowling and more than wickets I wanted to bowl dot balls that would increase India’s required run-rate”, said Wellalage.
He was in the Sri Lanka squad at the recently concluded T20 World Cup but was seated on the reserves bench and saw his team knocked out.
