Dunith Wellalage a rare achievement
The 19 year old leg spinner Dunith Wellalage of Colts Cricket Club captured 8 for 152 against Sinhalese Sports Club at Sinhalese Sports Club ground,Colombo in their Major Trophy Inter Club Cricket Tournament match recently.Thus he joined Two other Colts Cricket Club players Eric Upashantha and Dinuk Hettiarachchi as only players who performed this feat for the Havelock Park club earlier.
Both Dinuk Hettiarachchi (8/102 vs Bloomfield 1995/96 & 8/26 vs Matara S.C 1998/99) and Eric Upashantha (8/65 vs C.C.C 1998/99 & 8/67 vs Singha S.C 1998/99) have performed this feat twice in their careers with Colts C.C. This was also the fifth time this feat was achieved in Sinhalese Sports Club ground in a Major Trophy encounter. Former Sri Lanka speedster and present chief selector of the Sri Lanka Cricket Pramodya Wickramasinghe took all 10 wickets for 41 runs for S.S.C against Kalutara P.C.C in,1991/92 leads the list with Mahinda Halangoda ( 8/64 S.S.C vs Singha S.C 1989/90), Seekuge Prasanna ( 8/123 Sri Lanka Army S.C vs S.S.C 2009/10) and Saliya Saman Jeewantha (8/53 Badureliya S.C vs S.S.C 2012/13) followed
During the year 2022 Wellalage has risen to the top and achieved many notable feats. Under his leadership Sri Lanka under-19s toured West Indies in January and participated in the ICC Under 19 World Cup. Wellalage took 17 wickets during the championship with Two five wicket hauls against Scotland- (5/27) and Australia (5/28) in back to back encounters and also posted 264 runs(average 44.00) with his bat during the tournament. Dunith made a superb 113 against South Africa under 19s at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua with nine fours and four sixes. He and Ranuda Somarathne (57*) added 130 runs for the fifth wicket which was a record for that wicket in this year’s tournament. He won three player of the match awards against Scotland ,South Africa and Australia teams and hit one century and one fifty. (Striking rate 130.00). He became the first under 19 Sri Lankan captain to hit a century in the under 19 World Cup.
During this tour ,he became the world’s only under 19 cricketer to hit a fifty and also capturing five wickets in the same match twice in under 19 youth One Day Internationals. 52 & 5/28 vs Australia under 19s at Antigua in 2021/22 68 & 5/30 vs England under 19s at Singhalese Sports Club Ground in 2021/22.
His dreams came true on July 24 th this year ,when he was selected to play for the second Test match against Pakistan at Galle International Stadium and although he didn’t bowl much,he made 11 and 18 in the two innings he batted.
In February-April he played for Jaffna District in the National Super Provincial 4 day Tournament and captured 9 wickets before touring England with Sri Lanka Cricket Development XI during May. He claimed 5/143 against Surrey at Guildford.
After returning to Sri Lanka he played for Colombo Colts Cricket Club in the Major Trophy Tournament and captured 37 wickets from 10 matches with three five wicket hauls against Lancan C.C (5/90) Sri Lanka Police S.C (6/86) and S.S.C (8/152) . In all during the year 2022 he has taken 51 first class wickets for 1357 runs from 17 matches. He also posted two fine knocks against C.C.C (59*) and Moors S.C (78*) in crucial times.
During the Australian tour to Sri Lanka in June,he made his debut in One Day Internationals at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium against Australia and captured 9 wickets after playing all five matches in the bilateral series and ended as the highest wicket taker of the series with 3/42 as his best . Although he has taken only 5 wickets in the Twenty/20 format (3 in England tour and 2 in Sri Lanka Invitational 20/20 league) this season he was an instant success during the under 19 Inter School Limited Overs Tier A Tournament 2021/22 in March – April this year. Playing for his alma-mater St Joseph’s College, Maradana he captured 19 wickets with 5/14 vs St Thomas College Mount Lavinia and 4/37 vs Wesley College as his best . He ended the tournament as the leading wicket taker and also helped his school to win the championship by beating Richmond College Galle in the final under Shevon Daniel, by taking 3/18 with his leg spin.
Dunith Nethmika Wellalage, the elder son of former Prince of Wales Skipper Suranga Wellalage made his first-class debut for Lankan Cricket Club vs Sri Lanka Navy Sports Club at Welisara in May 2019 as a 16 year and 4 month old schoolboy Cricketer and proved his all round abilities within a very short period of time. In the year 2022, he has captured over 114 wickets in all major inter club and schools Cricket tournaments . (first-class-51,List A-19 T/20-5,Youth ODI- 17,Under 19 Inter School- 19,,Big match series-3)
Also he is very popular among his fans and has already clinched the Observer – SLT Mobitel most popular schoolboy cricketer of the year 2022 title by polling 44564 votes. In addition he is in front to take the major award of the Observer Mobitel Schoolboy cricket of the year at the forthcoming awards ceremony which is scheduled to be held on December 15