Paceman Asitha does Katuneriya proud
The 24-year-old Asitha Fernando finished with an excellent match bag of ten wickets, leading Sri Lanka to a remarkable win over Bangladesh in the second Test last Friday. His match bag of 10 for 144 not only led Sri Lanka to a ten-wicket win but also gave his team a 1-0 win in the two-Test series after the drawn first Test at Chittagong.
Asitha Fernando the right arm medium paceman followed his first innings spell of 4 for 93 with a penetrative spell of 6 for 51 in the second innings to win the man of the match award. Fernando rewrote his school cricket history by becoming the first ever Katuneriya Sebastianite to represent the national team. Ever since, he has represented the country in five Tests and four ODIs.
The most remarkable aspect of Sri Lanka’s victory was the Sri Lankan teams fast bowling .The young Asitha Fernando became only the second fast bowler in Sri Lanka’s history to take a 10 wicket haul .The first was former National fast bowler Chaminda Vaas who had two such hauls in 1995 and 2001.Asitha and Kasun Rajitha who took his maiden five wicket haul in the first innings in this winning test combined to take 17 wickets in the second test .
Going back to Sri Lankas early test match victories most of the times spinners dominated the games and paved the way to victories.The great Muttaih Muralitharan was the match hero those days and after that it was Rangana Herath who is the present Bangladesh team spin coach . However Praveen Jayawickrama the leg spinner could not get a single wicket in the second test while Ramesh Mendis the off spinner had only one wicket and part-time Off spinner Dhananjaya de Silva also went wicketless.
The point is clear Sri Lankan young fast bowlers have the urge to take wickets and Sri Lanka’s present head coach Chris Silverwood who was a former fast bowler and Dharshana Gamage who was the Bangladesh tour fast bowling coach are happy with the fast bowlers performance.Especially former fast bowling coach Champaka Ramanayake who is the present Bangladesh fast bowling High performance head coach was present to see the second match in Minpur and he was thrilled about young Asitha Fernando’ s skills .Asitha Fernando also got guidance from Ramanayake as well as Vaas to develop his skills.
Asitha Fernando won the best National bowler award at the Observer SLT Mobitel School Cricketer contest in 2016 .He was chosen to represent Sri Lanka at the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He was the leading pace bowler in the under 19 World Cup for Sri Lanka who finished the tournament as semi-finalists due to the fine bowling performance of Asitha and Lahiru Kumara. Asitha first came to the limelight at the under 19 world cup under the leadership of Charith Asalanka in 2016 and that world cup was played in Dhaka on the same pitches and this writer was fortunate to cover the 2016 under 19 world cup.
Asitha Fernando came from Katuneriya St Sebastian College which lacked facilities. However this energetic young fast bowler came up due to his natural ability and being included in the National under 19 pool was the touring point of Asitha Fernando’ s cricket career. He didn’t play on Turf wickets at school matches as they played in the lower division tournament. After the remarkable victory in Minpur Niroshan Dickwella the Sri Lanka wicket keeper said’’ These are not the wickets we played last time, when the ball was spinning and turning,. “This time it was dead and flat tracks, good for batsmen. Our fast bowlers came up with their plans. Their execution was good. In both Tests, there wasn’t much for spinners but the fast bowlers did well. Our batsmen also made the job easier for our bowlers. Dickwella further said “In the first innings, there was something for the seamers – a bit of movement and swing. We took five early wickets but we couldn’t take the other five wickets [quickly]. In the second innings seam movement was there. We stuck to our basic line and length. We wanted to bowl stump line in the second innings. Both Rajitha and Asitha bowled at their best to strangle the opponents. We knew the top-order was struggling in the first innings. We wanted to bowl line and length first. With Asitha’s pace and tactics with the short ball, we knew it would be hard for them. We wanted to spread the field, not to give easy runs, and then attack when possible said Dickwella.
Sri Lankan skipper Dimuth Karunaratne also highly praised Asitha Fernando and Kasun Rajitha a product of St Servatius Matara. .Sri Lanka also have Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara Dilshan Madushanka, Udith Madushan (both from Debarawewa Central), Yasiru Rodrigo, Amshi de Silva and many more young pacemen and hope they will continue to impress in future to get more success.