The 2023 Afghanistan tour of Sri Lanka has begun and it was a pretty classical victory for the Afghanistan side, winning the first of 3 ODIs by 6 wickets and going 1-0 up in the series, taking place in Hambantota. Twitter couldn’t keep calm and you can check out some of the best reactions and comments online about the win, here.
While it was a great day for Afghanistan Cricket, there were a few highlight moments for the home side as well, as they handed over ODI debuts to a couple of young and promising cricketers from the island nation. One of them recently finished a successful IPL 2023 season with Chennai Super Kings, where he was one of the side’s main bowlers as well.
SL bowler bowls 16 wides on ODI debut
We’re talking about the 20-year old Matheesha Pathirana who had already played a single T20I for his country but made his ODI debut today, 2nd June 2023, against Afghanistan. However, he’s already a household name across India as he represented MS Dhoni’s CSK during IPL 2023, picking 19 wickets in his 12 matches played in the season.
It wasn’t just about the wickets but the fact that he was difficult to get away, with Dhoni using him very strategically during the season. He brought him on only in the backend of the innings, bowling his full spell at once. At times, he even brought him off the bench to do this job as an ‘Impact Sub’ which was one of the new features in the Indian Premier League this season.
ALSO SEE: List of the top online sports betting websites
Here, he bowled as many as 16 wides and ended as the fourth most expensive spell for a bowler on Sri Lanka ODI debut, in their cricketing history. While he was a hero in IPL 2023, he ended with 1/66 in 8.5 overs and bowled far too many wides, which contributed to the visitors completing an easy chase.
Pathirana was known for all the good reasons but he didn’t have the best start to his ODI career. He got into unwanted record books and will be hoping this doesn’t continue in the next couple of games in this series. It’s interesting that MS Dhoni always manages to get the best out of players, in this case having picked an uncapped player from SL.
For similar updates from SL vs AFG 2023 and other cricketing news from around the world, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
Register on Odds96 and get a 300% first deposit bonus up to 1 Lakh
