Udawatta to hit it hard

Chris DHAMBARAGE

He was earmarked as a batsman with immense talent from the moment he scored a load of runs while still as a schoolboy cricketer. He carried that form into the domestic scene and forced himself into the national recognition.

Having matured and gained more experience in the game Mahela Lakmal Udawatte is now ready to take on the reigns as one of Sri Lanka's most destructive opening batsman in the modern era.

The former schoolboy of Ananda College and captain of the Chilaw Marians Cricket Club is fresh after a highly successful stint in the Bangladesh domestic scene where he excelled while representing the Khulna Kings team.

The 23 year old dashing left hander is now keen and anxious to have a successful tour down under with the Sri Lanka 'A' team when he confront the Australian bowlers during a One day and Twenty20 series next month.

His desire to score quick runs even under tough conditions is obviously the feature of his batting having produced some fascinating innings both at home and overseas in the recent past.

One of his memorable knocks was scored against a top class Pakistan attack where he smashed a run a ball 161 during a warm up game while representing Sri Lanka 'A' at the Welagedera Stadium in Kurunegala last year.

Thereafter he turned out to be a prolific run getter in the home series against Pakistan 'A' with his sparkling 136 at the NCC grounds as the best innings in that whole tournament.

Even then Udawatte will always cherish the moment when he hammered a fighting knock of 73 for Sri Lanka on a bouncy surface against a decent West Indian pace attack during a crucial one day international.

It was during this splendid innings that he really came out of his age while showing signs of turning out to be a classic opening batsman for his country. He also had the rare opportunity of reaching the three figure mark in a Twenty20 game when he plundered a magnificent century against Afghanistan in the four nation final at the SSC grounds.

Udawatte of course stepped into the domestic scene at the backdrop of a successful school cricket career where he scored over one thousand runs in his final year and as the captain of the Ananda College team.

He had instant success from there onwards and scored over 400 runs from eight matches while representing Chilaw Marians Cricket Club in the SLC Under 23 inter club limited overs tournament including one hundred and a couple of half centuries.

He was then promoted to captain the side and performed his role to perfection when he piloted Chilaw Marians CC to lift the SLC Premier League Tier 'A' title for the first time in their history.

[ Fact file:]

* Full name: Mahela Lakmal Udawatte

* Born: July 19, 1986, Colombo

* Current age: 23 years

* Parents: Lakshman Udawatte and Mala Caldera

* Major teams: Sri Lanka, Ananda College, Chilaw Marians Cricket Club, Sri Lanka A, Sri Lanka Academy XI, Wayamba, Khulna Kings

* Playing role: Batsman

* Batting style: Left hand bat

* Bowling style: Right-arm off break

* Height: 5 ft 8 inches

* School attended: Ananda College,

* Colombo Coaches: P. W. Perera, P. Palitha, Vipula Sittamige, Anurudda Polonowita, Mahesh Weerasinghe, Godfrey Dabarera, Jerome Jayaratne, Chandika Hathurusinghe

* One day international debut: v West Indies at Port of Spain in April 2008

* Twenty20 international debut: v Zimbabwe at Kings City in October 2008

* First class debut: 2005

* First class matches: 65,

* Innings: 116,

* Not outs: 8,

* Runs: 3345,

* Highest score: 168,

* Average: 30.97,

* 100's: 3,

* 50's: 22

* Favourite cricketer: Brian Lara (West Indies)