Sri Lankan all-rounder Dunith Wellalage played an instrumental in helping the hosts tie the opening ODI of the series against India at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Friday. Wellalage first shined with the bat, scoring an unbeaten 67 off just 65 balls to help his team post a fighting score of 230 runs on the board.

Furthermore, the left-arm orthodox returned with impressive figures of 2-39 in the nine overs he bowled. The 21-year-old youngster bagged the big wickets of Indian openers – Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma.

Gill was dismissed while trying to play a slog sweep but got a top edge, which was taken comfortably by Kusal Mendis. Indian captain Rohit Sharma, who was taking the game away from Sri Lanka, was dismissed LBW when he tried to play a sweep shot against a ball, which was tad fuller and thus he could not get the connection.

Ergo, the youngster was awarded Player of the Match after 44th tied match in the history of ODIs.

Wellalage told reporters via the ICC, “We knew that the wicket was spinning. So Charith Asalanka had told me that I would be bowling in the Powerplay. I had good support from the wicket too. With Rohit at the time, I was trying just to bowl wicket-to-wicket, because I knew how much assistance there was from the pitch.”

On the other hand, Pathum Nissanka continued his impressive form, scoring 56 runs off 75 balls. Wellalage said he was inspired by Nissanka’s batting.

“They have a lot of experienced bowlers, so the more we can limit our mistakes, the more we can put pressure on them. I was watching Pathum Nissanka bat quite a lot. I put his batting in my mind as I came up with a plan. If you take the pitch, it was one that supported spin bowling. I tried to put as much pressure on the bowler and build partnerships.”

The second ODI between India and Sri Lanka will be played at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Sunday.