Taking Tendulkar’s wicket biggest moment of my career, says Dhammika Prasad

Chris Dhambarage

Sri Lanka’s new pace sensation Dhammika Prasad said that capturing the key wicket of Sachin Tendulkar was the biggest moment of his career on the opening day of the third and deciding Test match against the touring Indian team which commenced at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium yesterday.

The twenty five year old right arm fast bowler captured three top wickets for 82 from 17 overs on his test debut as India were bundled out for 249 runs in their first innings after skipper Anil Kumble had won the toss and elected to bat first.

Dhammika Prasad who shared the new ball with veteran Chaminda Vaas, ripped through the Indian top order while adding the wickets of opener Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid during a dream spell.

Prasad who had earlier represented the country in three one day internationals in 2006 of course had a poor start and conceded too many runs at the beginning of the innings.

But he said that he was not really disappointed with this kind of start and always had confidence after having claimed four wickets for 28 runs against the same opposition for the Board XI during their warm up match at the NCC ground in Maitland Place.

Prasad who has captured 129 first class wickets from 41 matches said that Sachin Tendulkar has been his batting hero for a long period and claiming the little master was a dream come true.

He added that despite the enormous pressure on him he enjoyed bowling against the famed Indian batting line up with excellent support coming from skipper Mahela Jayawardena and the rest of his teammates.

Prasad said that he was bit nervous at the start but the wicket of inform batsman Virender Sehwag really lifted his morale and gave him a great amount of confidence to perform well.

He said that he was expecting a call to play in the second test at the Galle Stadium but was not disappointed and was prepared to grab the opportunity once he was selected for the third test.