'Didn't expect him to have such a good World Cup' - Jayawardene on Madushanka's chart-topping haul

Forty matches into this World Cup, who did you think would be topping the wicket-takers' chart? If you were picking a fast bowler, perhaps you'd have guessed Jasprit Bumrah, or Mark Wood, or Kagiso Rabada. Narrow it down to left-armers, and it's gotta be Shaheen Afridi, right? Mitchell Starc? Trent Boult?

We're going to tread lightly here, because the actual leading wicket-taker belongs to the most delicate of all modern cricketing species - a kind of player so fragile that even looking too long at their hamstrings could trigger a strain.

Seriously though, lower your voice. Squat down into the undergrowth, and peer through the bushes. You don't want to spook him. He has just made a promising start to his career, so we must be especially careful. But that over there, is wow, a Sri Lanka fast bowler. One who's been tearing up the World Cup.

It's a little bit mad, because there had been no serious signs that Dilshan Madushanka was going to have this spectacular a tournament. He'd been injured through most of the World Cup Qualifier (of course), and missed the Asia Cup completely with a tear in his side. In terms of form leading in, there was not even a little sample on which to base hopes. And in terms of ODI career in total, the guy had played six matches, and gone at more than seven an over in two of them, though never without looking like he could, eventually, maybe, with a lot of work, and whatever cosmic force still holds Sri Lankan cricket together, kind of be a good player?

But we're not getting our hopes up. The jinx gods are likely watching, and these are guys that prey on Sri Lanka quicks like Godzilla on Tokyo.

We're on firmer ground appreciating the things Madushanka has already done: swing the new ball into the right hander late, and at speed with the new ball, develop a cutter that jives off the pitch but which does not need him to fold his wrist on delivery and thus sacrifice a lot of pace, bowl an excellent bouncer when required, become more comfortable coming around the wicket.

Even still, 21 wickets in eight World Cup matches at an average of 22.23 is special for a 23-year-old in his first big ODI tournament. What is especially impressive is the strike rate of 20.57 - only Mohammad Shami (who has not only himself been ridiculously good, but bowls in a ridiculous attack), and Gerald Coetzee have a better strike rate among bowlers with more than 10 wickets this tournament.

Madushanka's hauls have even been a surprise to Mahela Jayawardene, who has overseen his development in big tournaments, as Sri Lanka's consultant.

"To be honest, no, I didn't expect him to have such a good World Cup," Jayawardene told ESPNcricinfo. "I thought it would be a bit too much for him, because it's his first one-day World Cup. At the start he also didn't have the experienced guys around him - Dushmantha Chameera wasn't there. But I thought the young man bowled brilliantly."

That he's always gleaned sharp, late inswing with the new ball has been known, but of his 21 wickets, only nine have come in the first 15 overs this World Cup. He's also become a middle-overs menace, taking seven wickets at an average of 27.42 between overs 16 and 40.

"He's coming around the wicket and creating good angles," Jayawardene said of Madushanka's middle-overs bowling. "He's used the slower bouncer pretty well, and bowled the [faster] bouncer pretty well. And the length control is excellent. He's not giving too much away. He's staying within the stumps even from around the wicket."

In the last 10 overs Madushanka has been expensive, going at 9.16 per over, but there is wicket-taking threat there too, says Jayawardene. He's only now developing skills for that phase of the game, but perhaps he has some innate advantages.

"He's also got a very unnatural wrist release. It's not the normal left-armer's wrist. It's got a bit of a wind-up. With that he's getting shape even with the older ball. So we're just trying to see how best he can how best he can use that and what angles will work.

"At the death, the wide slower balls, the yorkers - these are things we've been speaking to him about, but with the confidence he's got now, he's had much better execution."

Madushanka also produced Sri Lanka's most unforgettable moment of the tournament (not counting timed-out dismissals), when second ball, at the Wankhede, he sent an offcutter across no less a batter than Rohit Sharma, and uprooted his off stump.

Madushanka came to hard-ball cricket late in life compared to many of his team-mates. Hailing from Hungama, deep in the south, it was only when he impressed Chaminda Vaas at a regional fast bowling trial that he made the leap from softball to competitive cricket. But already, he is out-thinking top international batters.

"I told him that good batsmen will always open their front foot to him, especially the right handers," Jayawardene said. Right-handers open their front foot in order to access the inswinging deliveries they expect from Madushanka. "It was something that we were working on with him, with the bowling coaches as well. But we can't take credit for that [Rohit] dismissal. It was just an idea. It was his execution that got the wicket.

"He's also a smart kid, because even though he's a late bloomer, he understands the cricket language quite well, including adapting to tactics."

In order to avoid tempting fate, this is perhaps as much praise as a story about a young Sri Lanka quick should contain. But from a wreckage of a World Cup campaign, it is no small thing for Sri Lanka to have pulled out a bowler of Madushanka's promise.