Sri Lankan opener Avishka Fernando returned to form in sublime fashion in his side's first ODI against New Zealand with a solid century.
On Wednesday, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first in Dambulla, with the venue hosting its first ODI in over six years. They lost Pathum Nissanka early, caught superbly on the boundary by Nathan Smith off Jacob Duffy.
But thereafter, it was the Sri Lankan show as Kusal Mendis joined Avishka Fernando in the middle. The pair batted together for 35.4 overs, each of them scoring a ton as the partnership ended at 206 runs once Avishka hit Ish Sodhi straight down the throat of Will Young to depart for exactly 100.
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Through his knock, the opener showed more than a few flashes of the brilliance he had displayed at the 2019 World Cup. Aged just 20 at that tournament, Avishka played four matches, batting at No.3 in all of them to rack up scores of 49, 30, 104 and 20 against England, South Africa, West Indies and India respectively – all at strike rates in excess of 95 runs per 100 balls.
Unfortunately, Avishka never really built on his promising start to ODI cricket. He recorded the odd high score, but often interspersed this with strings of single-digit innings. The pattern has continued well into this year, but the big innings have started to show up more regularly.
Earlier this year, Avishka scored 40 and 96 in consecutive innings against India, as Sri Lanka beat their neighbours in a bilateral ODI series for the first time in 27 years. During the three-match series against Afghanistan in February, he managed 88 and 91.
However, this is Avishka's first century in over three years. His last triple-digit score was 118 against South Africa in September 2021, making a comeback after having been dropped from Sri Lanka's squad to tour West Indies and Bangladesh on account of multiple failed fitness tests.
Avishka did not feature in a single ODI in the entire calendar year of 2022, and struggled to nail down a place in Sri Lanka's T20 setup. Even now, doubts persist over his consistency in international cricket, but he could finally be on the road to cementing a spot in the 50-over format at least.
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