Sri Lankan cricket has produced some veteran spinners and one of those was Ajantha Mendis. Mendis was an off-spinner but such was the web that he had created that the term ‘mystery spinner’ was back in the fashion. Let us take a look at his top 3 bowling performances in ODI cricket.
1. 6/13 vs India, Karachi, 2008
Ajantha Mendis chose the perfect occasion to deliver his best bowling performance in ODI cricket. He picked up 6 wickets against India in the final of the 2008 Asia Cup. Batting first, Sri Lanka posted 273 runs on the board. It was a challenging total but India had a capable batting lineup to chase this score.
However, Ajantha Mendis had different plans. In his 8 overs, he conceded only 13 runs and dismissed six Indian batters to decimate the opposition batting unit. As a result of this bowling performance, India collapsed and Sri Lanka clinched the Asia Cup by a huge margin of 100 runs.
2. 6/29 vs Zimbabwe, 2008
This is the first 6-fer in Ajantha Mendis’ ODI career. In the fourth match of the ODI series between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, the clever spinner showed his class with the ball. In the first innings, he forced the opposition to surrender to his spin masterclass.
His six wickets did not let Zimbabwe get any momentum in the first innings and eventually, Sri Lanka restricted them to 146 runs. Ajantha was also adjudged the player of the match after Sri Lanka won the match, though very narrowly.
3. 4/10 vs India, 2008
Most of his best bowling performances came in the very early stage of his international career as it was next to impossible for batters to read what he was bowling and Mendis took advantage of that. He took four wickets against India in the fifth ODI of the series at Colombo.
In the first innings, Sri Lanka could only post 227 runs on the board which was not a safe total. The Sri Lankan bowling had to produce something special to prevent the Indian batting unit from chasing the target. Ajantha Mendis rose to the occasion and delivered for his team. His four wickets helped Sri Lanka restrict India to a miserable score of 103 runs.
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