Sri Lanka vs Australia Match Summary:
Sri Lanka’s batting line was completely destroyed by Travis Head and Nathan Lyon, who reduced the island nation to only 113 in their second innings. Australia then chased down the last five runs to win the series 1-0.
The hosts were unable to find the sweet spot between having an aggressive approach and displaying the necessary temperament and technique on a track that was providing more than enough help for the spinners.
Following Australia’s clean-up for 321, Sri Lanka got off to a strong start, with Pathum Nissanka and Dimuth Karunaratne, in particular, accumulating a tonne of boundaries. The opening pair demonstrated their aggressive stance by combining to hit four consecutive long balls off Mitchell Starc in the first over alone.
Karunaratne paddle-swept and flicked Lyon and Starc as he kept up his adventurous style of play. However, Karunaratne was quickly replaced by Lyon after the southpaw managed to get a slight advantage on his sweep to the keeper.
In order to induce the Sri Lankan captain to take the shot, a fielder was actually put at short fine. Nissanka also died trying the sweep in Mitchell Swepson’s very next over of bowling. Nissanka requested a review to reverse the LBW ruling, but she was forced to withdraw.
David Warner dropped Kusal Mendis at the leg-slip, while Kusal Mendis was also dismissed while attempting the sweep stroke, caught at the backward square leg off Lyon. Then, after nudging Swepson to the slip fielder, Oshada Fernando—the COVID substitute for Angelo Mathews—followed Mendis back to the hut.
Dhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal briefly sparked optimism about Sri Lanka’s ability to compete. Alternatively, Lyon had a chance to remove Dhananjaya in the 14th over but Alex Carey was unable to get a stumping.
The stand was quickly broken by Australia, though, when Travis Head castled Chandimal with a ripper. Dhananjaya was dismissed by Head in the same over.
Ramesh Mendis fell to Lyon because, like several of his colleagues, he was determined to use the sweep stroke. The final three wickets were then taken by Marnus Labuschagne and Head working together to put the finishing touches on the innings. David Warner duly scored the go-ahead runs off Mendis with a four and a six.
In the game, Lyon claimed nine wickets, and Head contributed with notable figures of 4 for 10 in the second innings.
Brief Scores: Australia 321 (Cameron Green 77; Ramesh Mendis 4-112) and 10/0 defeated Sri Lanka 212 (Niroshan Dickwella 58, Angelo Mathews 39; Nathan Lyon 5-90, Mitchell Swepson 3-55) and 113 (Travis Head 4-10, Nathan Lyon 4-31) by 10 wickets.
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