Angelo Mathews has come to stay
by Tyrell Peiris
He entered the international
cricket arena with a bang. Four wickets in five balls in the Twenty20
World Cup in England in a decisive match and some modest scores with the
bat saw Angelo Mathews, the 22-year-old product of St. Joseph’s College
soon establish himself in the Sri Lanka team at both Test match and
one-day international level.
 What is significant about Mathews blessed as a budding allrounder for
his country at a time allrounders are hard to come by is the fact that
the youngster has grabbed the opportunity that came his way with both
hands and stamped himself as a solid find for his country in the long
run while his bowling needs to be further developed having not
maintained the type of accuracy that shot him to recognition, Mathews’
batting has been consistent putting behind a brief bad patch when he
scored a career saving 99 in the first innings of the third Test match
against India in November last week.
What is important to nurture the allrounder is the expertise around
where it is hoped Mathews, who has shown the right match temperament,
would be fine tuned into a formidable cricketer.
Angelo Mathews, born 1987, is possibly the best batsman to emerge
since Kumar Sangakkara in mid-2000. After a prolific year for his
domestic club-Colts Cricket Club in 2007, and the Sri Lanka `A’ team in
2008, he forced himself into the national ODI squad during their tour to
Zimbabwe in October 2008 and the Sri Lanka `A’ team in 2008. His case
for an extended run in the Sri Lanka team was helped when he plundered
746 runs at 93.25 during the 2009 Provincial Tournament, scoring three
hundreds and two fifties. He is a genuine top-order batsman who also
bowls fast-medium seamers.
Mathews made his debut for Sri Lanka Under-19s when he was just 16
years against Pakistan in 2003. He is an outstanding allrounder, capable
of batting anywhere in the top order and also delivers lively medium
pace.
A fixture in the youth side since his debut, he was handed the
captaincy for the 2005 tour of England. The highlight on that tour was
an unbeaten 123 in the third Test which was not enough to stave off
defeat. During the U-19 triangular series involving Bangladesh and
England towards the end of 2005, Mathews produced an impressive, mature
innings with the bat.
An unbeaten 70 set up a win against England and he followed that with
97 not out, in a defeat, against Bangladesh. After a quiet debut
first-class season, in 2007-08, he made big strides with 696 runs at 58
and carried his good form into Sri Lanka A’s tour of South Africa. His
performances there won the praise of the coach, Chandika Hathurusingha,
who identified him as one for the future. He made it to the national
side for the tour of Zimbabwe in 2008. |
