Asia Cup: Sri Lanka's bowling hero Dunith Wellalage highlights Virat Kohli's dismissal as special moment

Sri Lanka’s bowling hero Dunith Wellalage made headlines on Tuesday, September 12 as he achieved a five-for against India in the Asia Cup 2023 Super clash. Wellalage, 20, playing in his 13th ODI match for the national side was at his fluent best as his bowling restricted India to 213 while he dismissed some of the modern-time greats of the game. However, he highlighted Virat Kohli’s wicket as a special moment as he made the headlines.

Wellalage on fire

"Yeah, specially I want to thank my teammates and bowling coach, special thanks to the bowling coach. All of them have been part of this. I am happy with the performance and it was not possible without their support. Virat Kohli's wicket is a very special one (smiles). I tried to bowl my normal ones and didn't look to do much variations," Wellalage told the broadcaster.

The pair of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill were seen in great nick before the latter was dismissed by Wellalage on his first ball of the match. Gill failed to judge the flight of the delivery and was nowhere near when he was castled on the first ball of the 12th over. The pair put together 80 runs for the opening wicket before the landslide of wickets started for India.

The 20-year-old did not sit back in his exploits as he got the better of skipper Rohit on 53 before striking big with Virat Kohli’s wicket. KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya were then in the firing line as they were dismissed for 39 and 5 respectively. Wellalage’s impact left Team India in a spot of bother as they quickly went from 80/0 to 186/9, losing nine wickets in a span of 106 runs.

Even contest

While India had an off day with the bat, bowlers Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja helped the Men in Blue in the bowling department. Both scalped wickets on a consistent basis to put the Lankan’s first 25/3 and then at 99/6. At the time of writing, Sri Lanka were 133/6 as Wellalage (15) and Dhananjaya de Silva (32) played handy knocks. Sri Lanka still needed 83 runs to win in 19 overs.

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