Dilhara celebrates birthday one day later with career best figures

Chris DHAMBARAGE

CRICKET: Sri Lanka’s premier fast bowler Dilhara Fernando decided to celebrate his 28th birthday one day later with career best figures of four wickets for 24 runs in the first one-day international against Bangladesh at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium yesterday.

Fernando born on July 19 in 1979, stunned the Bangladesh top order with his best effort in one day internationals as Sri Lanka cruised to an easy 70 run victory which gave them a one-nil lead in the three match series.

Fernando’s previous best effort was four wickets for 36 runs for the Asia XI against the African XI in the third match of the Afro-Asia series one-day tournament in Chennai early this year.

Fernando said that he was pleased with this performance although a five wicket haul would have given him a great amount of satisfaction.

He said that the track at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium was a flat one and he had to hit the deck more often to trouble the batsmen.

Fernando who made his one-day international debut against South Africa in January 2001 at Paarl noted that the dismissal of Bangladesh captain Mohamed Ashraful was an important one that turned the game in Sri Lanka’s favour.

The right hander was well-trapped due to the clever bowling of Fernando who used the slow delivery to good effect. He also said that he was able to control his no balls and wides to a great extent and received excellent support from his captain Mahela Jayawardena.

In fact skipper Jayawardena commended his bowlers for another marvellous performance that gave Sri Lanka a comfortable victory at the end.

He said that he always had confidence with his bowlers even though they were defending a modest total of 234 runs.

The Sri Lankan captain said that the opening stand between Tamim Iqbal and Shahiriar Nafeez did not cause any major concern to his team because he knew it was just a matter of time when Bangladesh would throw their wickets away.

Jayawardena was full of praise for Dilhara Fernando who returned career best figures of four wickets for 24 runs that earned him the man-of-the-match award.

“Hats off to Fernando. He has really come back strongly,” said Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene.”

“We made early mistakes and Bangladesh bowled well. Credit should go to Tharanga and Silva as it was not easy to bat.

We capitalised in the last 10 overs as well,” added Jayawardena.