Srilanka regain momentum in the Commonwealth Bank series

The Lankan Tigers have witnessed a dramatic turnaround in their fortunes as they defeat the home side Australia in the ninth game of the Commonwealth Bank series. This was also Srilanka’s second successive victory over Australia in the ongoing competition.
With this win, Srilanka go atop the points table with 15 points, one clear of Australia who are second and five clear of India who are third in the standings.

Australia had Michael Clarke back in the leading role after a two-match break due to injury at the expense of Ricky Ponting. The former captain has been dropped from the series due to poor run of form in the ODI’s. Mitchell Starc was rested and Ryan Harris
was drafted in as part of rotation policy. Srilanka were unchanged from the last game that defeated India by 51 runs.

Australia won the toss and decided to bat. Matthew Wade and David Warner failed to provide a decent start to their side before Peter Forrest and skipper, Clarke, resurrected the ship with a 154-run stand for the third wicket. Forrest completed his maiden
international century and was eventually out for 104. Clarke was dismissed was 72 before David Hussey blasted 40 off 28 balls.

The Kangaroos finished with 280/6. Angelo Matthews picked up two wickets while one wicket each was picked up by Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekara, Farveez Maharoof and Rangana Herath.

Srilanka made a fiery start to their innings and Mahela Jayawardene and Tillikaratne Dilshan added 55 runs in seven overs for the first wicket. Dilshan, though, managed just three of those runs and lost his wicket to Ben Hilfenhaus. Jayawardene finished
with 85 while Dinesh Chandimal launched yet another half century, eventually getting LBW for 80. Lahirru Thiramanne and Mathews chipped in with 24 runs each before Thisara Perera smacked 21 runs off 11 balls to help his side cross the line and go on top of
the points table.

Daniel Christian picked up three wickets for 53 runs in eight overs while Hilfenhaus picked up two scalps. Harris and Doherty also chipped in with a wicket each but were unable to help their side achieve four important points as Australia go second.

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Posted by Taha Habib on Feb 24 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry