Mon, 22 Aug 2011 - Sri Lanka vs Australia, Australia Tour of Sri Lanka 2011, 5th ODI - Bulletin

Malinga hat-trick secures consolation win

Riding Lasith Malinga’s hat-trick, Sri Lanka overcame Australia in the last match of ODI series by 4 wickets with Mahela Jayawardene and Chamara Silva scoring fine half-centuries in a small chase. Australia were bundled out for 211 with Malinga getting three wickets in three balls, the chase was completed without major alarms. Having already lost the series, this win helped Sri Lanka narrow down the overall margin of defeat to 2-3.

The hosts after having batted first on all four previous occasions in the series were chasing for the first time. And, it started on a bad note as Upul Tharanga was sent back for a duck by Mitchell Johnson. James Pattinsosn, playing his first match in the series extracted considerable movement with the new ball. He had Kumar Sangakkara caught behind for 7, Sri Lanka were in a spot of bother at 12 for two. Skipper Tilakaratne Dilshan missed many but crashed three fours before being cleaned-up by the impressive Pattinson.

With the chase faltering at 33-3, the woefully out of touch Chamara Silva and classy Mahela Jayawardene got together to stitch a match-winning 111 run partnership. While Silva was the aggressor at the start, Mahela played second fiddle as Sri Lanka recovered from the earlier blows. The former brought up his fifty with a single, relief for a man who was fighting for his place in the team. Shortly afterwards, he was caught in the deep for 63 not before putting the chase on course at 144 for 4 in 27th over.

Rain intervened in the same over, holding up play for about half an hour but there was no loss of overs. After play resumed, Mahela led the chase with his usual touch play, even though there were a couple of close calls including a missed out run-out opportunity. However, he too completed his fifty and along with Angelo Mathews took his team forward. He was dismissed at 71, with Sri Lanka just 17 runs away from the target. Angelo Mathews had played a supporting role in the 51 run partnership with Mahela, tried to smash the winning runs but was caught at mid-off for 26. Finally, the runs did come and SL crossed the line with18 balls to spare.

Earlier, Australia seemed to be moving towards a 250 plus score but Lasith Malinga brought the innings to a grinding halt with his third hat-trick in ODI’s, the most by any bowler as the visitors stumbled to 211 all-out in 46.1 overs.

After being sent in, Australia lost Shaun Marsh early, bowled by Shaminda Eranga for 2. Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting then put on a brisk 71 runs at more than run a ball. Ponting was particularly severe on anything lose hitting six boundaries in a 35-ball 31. Watson at the other end kept the score board moving. Skipper Michael Clarke continued his good run in the tournament, with a busy start to his innings.

Watson departed shortly after bringing up his fifty, while as Micheal Hussey was caught behind off Prasanna as Sri Lanka fought back with regular strikes by the spinners and put brakes on the scoring rate. Meanwhile, Clarke and the other Hussey, set about to rebuild and lay a strong platform for the lower order. They succeeded to some extent taking Australia to 210 for five in the 45th over before David was castled by Mendis for a well-made 46.

The next over, the first of the batting power play started the Malinga Show. And, no prizes for guessing the type of deliveries that got the hat-trick. Mitchell Johnson’s furniture was disturbed by a searing yorker, John Hastings couldn’t prevent a full delivery from crashing into his pads to be trapped LBW and Xavier Doherty even though would have expected a full delivery had no answer to another toe-crusher.

Two balls later, Mendis removed out-of-form Brad Haddin for 8 as Australia had collapsed in a heap. The last five wickets had gone down for just 1 run in space of 10 deliveries. Australia, before the power play would have been aiming for a 250 plus total but Malinga stopped them at 211, something which proved to be below par on a good batting surface.