By Leonard Ratnayake
Continous failure in the middle order batting coupled with poor fielding and spineless bowling cost Sri Lanka a 87 run defeat against Australia in an ICC World Cup fixture match at the Oval grounds in England on Saturday.
Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunarathna won the toss and elected to bowl first on a green top expecting to take early breakthroughs but the Aussie openers scored without much trouble against a spirit less bowling and fielding display by the Sri Lankans.
The only exception was when skipper Aaron Finch got the benefit of an umpire’s call in a LBW dismissal off the bowling of Nuwan Pradeep when the former was on 35 and he went on to make it very costly for Sri Lanka with a record-breaking 153.
The pair gathered 80 runs in 16 overs before David Warner was out bowled by Dananjaya de Silva for 26 runs. He then removed Usman Khawaja for 10 with the score on 100.
Thereafter, Steve Smith joined Finch to take the Aussie scoreboard to a commanding 273 in the 43rd over. Isuru Udana and Lasith Malinga took two quick wickets to restrict Australia for 334 for seven in 50 overs.
Chasing 335, Sri Lankan openers got off to a promising start with boundaries almost in every over with array of stroke play to score 100 runs in the 13th over for no loss. Kusal Perera was then bowled by Mitchell Starc for 52 runs in the 16th over. Lahiru Thirimanna joined skipper Karunarathna who eventually fell prey to a defensive approach to slow the run rate and Sri Lanka built up pressure on themselves with Thirimanna leaving for 16 runs in the 24th over with the total on 153.
Skipper Karunarathna failed to capitalise on a great start to his innings as he failed to score his first ODI century with only 3 runs short in 108 balls.
Thereafter, much was expected from Angelo Mathews and Kusal Mendis as contributions for Sri Lanka’s victory chances and above all as reasons for their permanency in the team. Mathews departed cheaply for nine runs while Mendis scored 30 caught behind off Starc, who then took Australia back into the game with full control as Sri Lanka bundled out for 247.
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