Australian wunderkind Oliver Peake on his Aus A debut against Sri Lanka
Teenager Oliver Peake hit 55no from just 38 balls on his Australian A debut on Friday in the first of five matches against Sri Lanka in the Northern Territory.
The left-hander walked to the middle with 10 overs left and put on a 100-run stand with Test hopeful Nathan McSweeney.
Peake carved four fours and one towering six in his 38-ball stay but, worryingly for Sri Lanka, he said he was far from his best for the first half of his innings.
'It was pretty cool to bat with Nathan McSweeney, obviously six months ago he was opening the batting for Australia,' Peake said.
'It's pretty cool to rub shoulders with him and spend some time out in the middle.
'He definitely guided me through my first 20 balls really well, I felt like I wasn't really hitting them too well and struggling to get it away.
'He just reminded me it's a big ground, run really hard and we just started to get the momentum back in our favour that way.'
Ollie Peake made two hundreds for the Australian under-19 team against India. Picture: Oliver Peake Instagram.
Peake, who toured with Australia in Sri Lanka earlier this year, also hit a half century on Sheffield Shield debut for Victoria in March.
He said he took some time to adapt to the speed of the Sri Lankan spinners and the length of the seamers.
'The wicket had enough in it for the bowlers but as you can see a lot of runs scored as well,' he said.
'Their spinners were pretty fast through the air and didn't get too much bounce, that was a bit new and different to how Australians typically bowl.
'Their pace bowlers were trying to hit a lot of Yorkers which was quite new to me as well playing List A first class cricket, my first game.
'Hopefully I can continue on with some runs but it was good to help out at the end and cool to bat with 'Buddha' (McSweeney).'
Tyler Lewis
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Tyler Lewis is a sports reporter based in Melbourne's south east.
@tmlew_
Tyler Lewis
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