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.
