Finance
Australia defeated Sri Lanka by five wickets on Monday at Lucknow’s Ekana Cricket Stadium, with all-rounder Mitchell Marsh and wicketkeeper Josh Inglis hitting fluent half-centuries and leg-spinner Adam Zampa taking 4 for 47.
Set 210 to win, Australia got off to a nightmare start when Dilshan Madushanka dismissed both David Warner and Steven Smith, both called leg-before-wicket. Marnus Labuschagne just escaped a leg-side strangling courtesy to a review that forced umpire Chris Gaffaney to reverse his initial judgement of one out. The Australian camp breathed a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Mitchell Marsh batted brilliantly, fiercely attacking the Sri Lankan bowlers and reaching a spectacular half-century.
Marsh and Labuschagne worked well together, scoring 57 runs for the third wicket. However, Marsh’s overestimation of a second run resulted in a runout in the 15th over, and he finished with a personal score of 52 from 51 balls.
Labuschagne and Josh Inglis displayed remarkable batting skills, compiling a 77-run fourth-wicket partnership that effectively ended the Sri Lankan Lions’ aspirations. Inglis, in particular, excelled with his first World Cup fifty, scoring 58 runs off 59 balls. In the final stages of the run chase, both Labuschagne (40 off 60) and Inglis succumbed to the Sri Lankan bowlers.
Nonetheless, Glenn Maxwell (31* off 21) and Marcus Stoinis (20* off 10) ensured that the Sri Lankans had no chance of comeback. The Australians successfully chased down the target with 5 wickets and a significant 14.4 overs to spare.
Earlier, after winning the toss and electing to bat first, Sri Lanka made a solid start, with the opening combination of Kushal Perera and Pathum Nissanka putting up a 125-run partnership for the first wicket, defying the Australian bowling assault.
Pathum Nissanka scored 61 runs off 67 deliveries before being caught by Pat Cummins, who took advantage of a catching opportunity presented by Nissanka off David Warner’s bowling. Cummins continued to cause problems for Sri Lanka with dismissing Kushal Perera, who hit 78 runs off 82 deliveries.
Adam Zampa, an Australian spinner, was key in the match, getting the wickets of skipper Mendis for just 7 runs and Sadeera Samarawickrama, who scored 8 runs from as many deliveries.
Mitchell Starc caused quite a commotion in the first five overs of the match by delivering a double Mankad warning to Perera instead of knocking the bails off. He eventually got his first of two wickets by clean-bowling Dananjaya de Silva, who scored only seven runs. Dunith Wellalage was then removed via a runout.
Adam Zampa also had an impact, securing Chamika Karunaratne’s wicket after trapping him in front of the stumps. That evening, he added to his wicket total by dismissing Maheesh Theekshana for a duck, increasing his match total to 4 wickets. Mitchell Starc claimed the final wicket, breaking through Lahiru Thirumana’s defense to end Sri Lanka’s innings at 209.
Source:IT
