Australia baffled by smart Srilanka
Saturday, February 18th, 2012 5:29:10 by Taha Habib
Australia suffered their second successive loss of the on-going tri-series after going down by eight wickets to Srilanka and in the process conceding a bonus point. Michael Clarke opted out of the game due to injury and Ricky Ponting captained the side.
Brett Lee also was included in the squad in place of Ryan Harris while Michael Hussey was also drafted in the starting XI.
Srilanka played Farveez Maharoof in place of leg spinner Sachitra Sennanayake while out-of-form opener, Upul Tharanga was replaced by Lahiru Thirimanne. David Warner made 13 and Matthew Wade 15 before the stand-in skipper was out for 2. Mike Hussey couldn’t
resurrect his team’s ship and made 13 before Peter Forrest lost his head on 16. With Australia reeling at 74-5, all-rounder, Daniel Christian was adjudged LBW of Thisara Perera. He made 6. Once again, David Hussey came to his side’s rescue and made a rapid
58 of 64 balls before losing his wicket in the 40th over. Mitchell Starc made a handy 17 before becoming the last man to get out. The Kangaroos folded for 158 in 40.5 overs after the match was reduced to 41 overs due to rain.
Maharoof and Perera picked up two wickets each while Lasith Malinga, Angelo Matthews and Rangana Herath picked up a wicket each. Three of the players got run out.
The Lankans had a chance to register a win with the bonus point to improve their position on the points table. Mahela Jayawardena promoted himself to open the innings alongside Tillikaratne Dilshan and made a brisk start to the innings. Dilshan was out for
45 of 41 balls. Kumar Sangakkara continued from where Dilshan had left before scooping a catch to Xavier Doherty for a 29-ball 30. The skipper finished not-out on 61 of 67 balls as Srilanka registered their first win of the tournament and moved to seven points.
Australia are second with eight while India are atop the points table with 10 points.
Australia will next take on India at Brisbane on Sunday, February 19.
Tags: andrew strauss, cricket, elderly, ICC, Misbah ul Haq, Mohsin Khan, saeed ajmal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, state cyber terrorism, tech savvy, US drone strikeShort URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=13149
Posted by Taha Habib
on Feb 18 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports.
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