Pramod Madushan claims career-best ODI figures of 4/75 versus Afghanistan
Pramod Madushan was the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka against Afghanistan in the first ODI in Pallekele. Madushan bowled brilliantly and engineered the early collapse. He had a dry spell in between before finishing with figures worth 4/75. The speedster scalped some crucial wickets and derailed Afghanistan in their run chase as they eventually posted 339/6, falling 42 runs short. Here's more.
A crucial spell from Madushan
Madushan made the new ball talk and dismantled Afghanistan's fiery top order. He removed Rahmanullah Gurbaz with his first delivery. In his next over, Ibrahim Zadran also returned to the pavilion. A couple of overs later, he knocked over skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi as Afghanistan suffered a collapse chasing SL's target of 382. He later returned for another spell and outfoxed the well-settled Mohammad Nabi.
A look at his ODI numbers
The 30-year-old speedster has featured in four ODI matches and has returned with seven wickets at an average of 23.85. This is his career-best bowling figures in this format. Before this, he had only three wickets from as many ODIs. Madushan made his ODI debut for SL in 2022 against Australia and never went on to cement his place in the ODI setup.
Madushan scalped ODI wickets against Australia and Pakistan
Madushan featured in a single ODI against Afghanistan, Australia, India and Pakistan. While he scalped a four-fer versus Afghanistan, he claimed 2/58 against Pakistan while returning with 1/13 against Australia. The speedster played an ODI against India where he bowled two overs without picking up a scalp. Overall, he has now claimed 85 wickets in List A cricket from 66 matches.
A look at the match summary
Sri Lanka reached a massive total of 381/3 courtesy of a historic 210* from Pathum Nissanka and a fifty from Avishka Fernando. Fareed Ahmad starred for Afghanistan with 2/79. In reply, Afghanistan were once tottering at 55/5 but a 242-run stand between Nabi and Azmatullah Omarzai helped them reach 339/6. Afghanistan lost by 42 runs but gave a good fight. Madushan claimed 4/75.
