Winning the toss and being bowled out for 214 runs Sri Lanka yet again displayed the vulnerability in the top order at the R.Premadasa stadium today.
Reduced to 55 runs for 5 wickets with only Charith Asalanka to battle for survival is a concern for coach Sanath Jayasuriya against an inexperienced Australian bowling attack.
Top order Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis, and Janith Liyanage were guilty of fishing outside the off stump and playing away from their body to give Australian bowlers the much needed wickets upfront.
Kamindu Mendis was caught brilliantly at short mid wicket by Jack Frazer. Hence, he will count himself unlucky to be counted as a batter who threw his wicket away.
It was the 6th wicket stand of all rounder Dunith Wellalage and skipper Charith Asalanka, who stiched a 67-run partnership to get Sri Lanka to 122 for 6 wickets and breath a bit easy on their way to 214 all out in 46 overs.
Dunith Wellalage, who made 32 runs, is gold dust given the circumstances of the top order failure.
Charith Asalanka was the man of the day who made his 5th century with an out of the world display of a never say die effort of scoring 127 runs batting with the vulnerable Sri Lankan tail.
When wickets fell like a pack of cards, it was Eshan Malinga who stood vigil with his skipper to stich a partnership of 79 runs for the 9th wicket that helped Sri Lanka get past the two hundred mark and be bowled out for 214 runs with something to defend , given the conditions.
Asalanka batted on a different wicket in comparison to his teammates and also his opposition.
He had a strike rate on 100 , made 127 in 126 deliveries with 11 boundary hits and 5 massive sixes.
Eshan Malinga’s 1 run in 26 deliveries was a vigil worth in gold in the final analysis.
Speaking to renowned cricket commentator Roshan Abeysinghe during the game, he stated 200 is a winning score, and I now realise his prediction was spot on in the final result.
Australia was fantastic and a team to emulate in catching and ground fielding. Steve Smith grabbed 4 victims in the slip cordon whilst Sri Lankans slipped and dropped 2 important catches, which they were lucky did not have any bearing on their 49 run win.
Seamers Spencer Jhonson 2 for 44 , Aaron Hardie 2 for 13 , Sean Abbot 3 for 61 , Nathen Elise 2 for 23 and off spinner Mathew Short 1 for 39 bowled well despite their inexperience on subcontinent conditions. Adam Zampa went wicketless. Funny equation.
Australian top order batters simply followed their counterparts.Both openers, Mathew Short, and Jack Frazer were seen swinging their willow at every delivery and were dismissed by Asitha Fernando the experience seam bowler who had the former lbw for a duck in the second ball of the first over and Jack Frazer for 2 runs in his next over.
Even Steve Smith looked out of sorts playing across the line to a Wellalage delivery to be bowled for 12.
Alex Carey looked threatening with a well compiled 41, but the dismissal of Labuchange for 15 laid heavy burden on the glove man .
Aaron Hardie 32 and Sean Abbot 20 lacked experience in the middle order to ensure they bat till the 40th over at least, but they were too weak against Mahesh Theekshana variety.
Theekshana 4 for 40 with Dunith Wellalage and his game changing dismissal Steve Smith with 2 for 33 and Asitha Fernando and his opening burst of 2 for 23 got the job done and dusted for Sri Lanka by 49 runs.