Australia take the Commonwealth Bank series after a close final

Australian summer has finally ended after the Kangaroos conquered Srilanka in the last final of the best-of-three series at the Adelaide Oval. The Lankan Lions fell short by 16 runs to lose the series 2-1 having put up a brave show throughout the tri-series
which also involved India.

Regular skipper, Michael Clarke was forced to sit out due to injury as Shane Watson filled in the boots of his teammate. Peter Forrest was included in the playing XI. Nathan Lyon was handed his international debut at the expense of fast bowler, James Paattinson.

Srilanka went unchanged and elected to bowl first after winning the toss. Once again, Tillikaratne Dilshan opened the bowling for his side along with Nuwan Kulasekara but was unable to separate the opening pair. Mathew Wade and David Warner added 75 for
the first wicket before Warner was caught behind of Farveez Maharoof for 48.

Watson was the next to depart for 19 after Rangana Herath completed a superb catch in the deep. Michael Hussey managed just a single before getting run-out courtesy of a direct throw from Dilshan. Wade was the fourth one to depart for 49. Herath took his
wicket.

Peter Forrest soon followed Wade for 3 after getting cleaned up by Herath that gave him his second wicket. David Hussey and Daniel Christian added 16 runs for the sixth wicket before Hussey left the scene for 19. He was adjudged LBW by Asad Rauf off Maharoof.

Christian also did not last longer and scooped a simple catch to captain, Mahela Jayawardena off Maharoof. The bowler eventually finished up with 3/40 in his 10 overs. On the other hand, Herath got Clint McKay out for 28 as the spinner finished up with the
figures of 3/36 off his 10.

Brett Lee’s 32 proved handy as Australia crawled their way to 231. Kulasekara picked up 2 wickets while one wicket was picked up Dilshan.

Srilanka got off to a blistering start courtesy of Dilshan and Jayawardena but lost the former at the score of 23. He made 8. Kumar Sangakkara and Jayawardena added 24 for the second wicket befor the latter was caught by Watson off Lee for 19. Dinesh Chandimal
could not last longer and managed just 5 before being trapped in front off McKay.

Jayawardena soon left the scene for 15 after being cleaned up by McKay. Upul Tharanga and Lahiru Thirimanne steadied the ship by adding 60 runs for the 5^th wicket. Thirimanne was caught by Warner off Watson to leave Srilanka at 113/5.

Kulasekara made a quick-fire 15 before handing a catch to mid-on off Lee where Lyon made no mistake. Tharanga and Maharoof took the score to 204 before an unfortunate of Tharanga’s bat ended Srilanka’s hopes. He made a well compiled 71 off 122 balls.

Maharoof tried till the very end but Herath and Lasith Malinga failed to provide him support as Lanka skittled for 215 with seven balls remaining. Clint McKay was given the Man of the Match award whereas Dilshan was adjudged the Man of the Series.

Australia will now travel to West Indies for the Tests, ODI’s and T20 series while Srilanka will travel away to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup also involving India and Pakistan apart from the host nation.

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Posted by Taha Habib on Mar 8 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