Commanding win keeps Sri Lanka in the hunt

Without a win in their first three games, Sri Lanka fought their way back into the CB series with a comprehensive eight wicket victory over Australia at SCG. Australia were completely outplayed in all the departments as they struggled with the bat, failed to make an impact with the ball and were uninspiring in the field. Despite a long rain break reducing the match to 41 overs per side, Sri Lanka bowled out the hosts for 158 and then made short work of the revised 152-run target.

After this result, the race for the best-of three final has been thrown wide open with all teams in contention for the knock-outs. With their second successive defeat, the hosts have now slipped to the bottom of table. It can be argued that Michael Clarke’s absence has something to do with the slump.

Ricky Ponting, the stand-in Australian captain for injured Michael Clarke, elected to bat first on a track with tinge of green under overcast conditions. However, the first two wickets to fall had little to do with seam or swing. David Warner started well with two sweetly timed boundaries but was fooled by a well-disguised slower-one from Lasith Malinga as the aggressive left hander offered a simple catch to Farveez Maharoof at mid-on.

Maharoof, making a comeback into the Sri Lankan team, produced a slower delivery of his own to lure Ricky Ponting into a drive that came straight back to the bowler and like the earlier chance, he held on to it. The two early wickets proved to be a big setback for Australia as they could never recover from the bad start.

With their bowlers keeping Australia under the cosh, the Sri Lankan fielders stepped up the intensity to block all the escape routes for the hosts. Thisara Parera enacted the perfect dive-and-throw act to run-out an indecisive Mathew Wade for 15. Michael Hussey tried to mount a rearguard but Angelo Mathews had him caught behind.

Maharoof returned to remove Peter Forrest and with no Michael Clarke to save the situation for Australia, the hosts were fast slipping into a hole. All-rounder Daniel Christian couldn’t do much and by the time rain arrived, Australia were struggling at 88 for 6 after 26 overs. However, David Hussey was still undefeated after Lasith Malinga dropped an easy chance at third-man.

A good two hours of rain came to Australia’s rescue as the match was reduced to 41-overs per side. Knowing well that they would have struggled to play out the full 50-overs, Australia benefited hugely from the rain interruption.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan bowlers kept hitting the right areas and removed Clint McKay and Brett Lee in quick succession to reduce the hosts to 104 for 8. It was only due to 49-run stand between David Hussey and Mitchell Starc that Australia were able to lend some respectability to their total. Eventually, David Hussey was caught in the deep after bailing his side out of trouble with a pugnacious 58-run knock. The last man fell on the penultimate ball as Australia ended up with some kind of total on the board.

For Sri Lanka, the chase was going to be a cake walk if one of their big three fired. Today, all of them contributed. When Mahela Jayawardene opened with Tillakaratne Dilshan, it was obvious that he wanted to finish the job a soon as possible and earn a bonus point as well. With Duckworth Lewis coming into play, the revised target for Sri Lanka was 152.

The openers started aggressively and put the match beyond Australia with a rapid 74-run partnership at more than run-a-ball. Dilshan led the charge and blasted three successive boundaries off Brett Lee who was made a swift return to the team having recovered from his toe fracture. He had raced to 45 when Clint McKay had him caught in the slips.

However, the old firm of Mahela and Kumar Sangakkara made sure there were no hiccups. Also, it was fitting that latter reached the milestone of 10,000 runs in ODI cricket in company of his best friend. Even though, Sangakkara fell to Lee for 30, Mahela saw his side through, remaining unbeaten on 61.