His three victims - Avishka Fernando, Nuwanidu Fernando and Chamika Karunaratne - have all played international cricket, and he struck twice early as Sri Lanka A stumbled to 9 for 3 after four overs.

"I'm really happy," Mahmood said. "Pre-game I was very internal and thinking about myself. To be honest, I just didn't want to look stupid out there. It's natural to have those sorts of thoughts when you haven't played for so long, but at the same time, there was a part of me that wanted to go out and really impress.

"I just needed that and today when I got out there from the first over something triggered me and I wasn't thinking about myself, my body or the technical things. It was purely about outcome and performance and they came out nice.

"One of their opening batters got given out lbw and stood there for a little longer than he should have and I just had a word with him. That was literally it. It got me going, and from there it was about the batters I was bowling at. The competitive instincts take over. For a first game back and not knowing how it would go, I feel really good and chuffed with how it has gone.