Theekshana, Sri Lanka’s new mystery spinner

Maheesh Theekshana, the 21-year-old mystery spinner was the cynosure of all eyes when he picked up 4 for 37 on debut to lead Sri Lana to convincing 78 run win over Proteas in the third and final ODI played at the R Premadasa grounds yesterday.

The young spinner picked up a wicket off his first ball in international cricket and one with his last ball of the 10-over spell to record the best-ever returns for a Sri Lankan debutant.

"I actually brought Maheesh Theekshana into the team to play T20s. But I knew that on a track like this where it turns a lot, it's going to be hard for South Africa to read someone like Theekshana out of the hand. I took that risk as a captain and the selectors and coaches supported me. And that became a big advantage for us,” said skipper Dasun Shanaka who lead Sri Lanka to win the 3-match series 2-1.

"He's played a little bit at the higher levels - not internationals - but he's played league tournaments like the T10 and the LPL," Shanaka said. "It's not easy to read him because he's now got the googly, and the carrom ball, and his offspin as well. Because he's got several variations, I don't think it'll be easy for any team to read him. But it's because he has some skill that we used him. It's not just how difficult to read him, we also know that he's a skilful bowler."

This was Sri Lanka's first ODI series victory in five attempts this year. They lost against West Indies, Bangladesh, England, and India and admitted there’s lot of work to be done.

"Batting is where we have a weakness still," he said. "We don't play enough sweeps or reverse sweeps against spin, and we've got to do that in future. We might win series, but we have to focus on how we're going to score 300 or chase 300 going forward. We also need to figure out our death bowling a little more. Those are the big areas for improvement.

"But in this team, the only players who had played more than 50 matches were Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva, so I think that as a team we should be able to hit our targets in the future. When you get experience, your game develops. I have a lot of belief that with that experience this group of players will perform well in the years to come."