Same Results…

Sri Lanka’s batting failed for the umpteenth time to deliver and World Cup champs Australia powered by skipper David Warner’s seventh ODI century and third against Sri Lanka cruised to a comfortable five-wicket win in the fifth and final match to win the five-match series 4-1 at the Pallekele Stadium yesterday.

Australian captain David Warner celebrates his return to form with a timely century

Warner whose form on the tour has become a talking point had only 68 as his previous highest score but he made a timely return to form with the two T20 Internationals against Sri Lanka around the corner with a superb knock of 106 off 126 balls (9 fours) to propel his team to victory with seven overs to spare.

In the process Warner who was made Man of the Match became the first Australian batsman to score a one-day hundred in Sri Lanka.

Australia chased down Sri Lanka’s disappointing total of 195 all out in 40.2 overs by scoring 199-5 in 43 overs. A feature of Australia’s run chase on another slow surface was the partnership of 132 between Warner and George Bailey (44) that sealed the match for them after they had lost two wickets for 25.

Bailey in fact won the Hero of the Series award for his consistent batting where he scored 270 runs (avg. 67.50) in five matches.

Danushka Gunathilaka is bowled around his legs by Adam Zampa for 39 to start a familiar batting collapse

For the first time in the series Sri Lanka were given an excellent start by their openers Dhananjaya de Silva and Danushka Gunathilaka who put together 73 in 14 overs.

But once the initial breakthrough was made by James Faulkner who had De Silva chipping a simple catch to mid-on with his score on 34, the Lankan batting collapsed in a heap to be bowled out for under 200 runs, which was hardly a total for their bowlers to contain the Australian batting line-up.

Three top order batsmen De Silva, Gunathilaka and Kusal Mendis made starts getting into the thirties but none stuck around long enough to make a big score.

Credit to the Australian bowlers who stuck to a good line and length and forced the batsmen into making false strokes.

Following the good start Sri Lanka lost three wickets for five runs in nine balls and from there onwards it was a downward decline with no one able to resurrect the innings.

Kusal Perera perhaps was rather unlucky to be ruled out lbw after challenging the onfield umpire’s decision to rule him out lbw to Trevor Head.

TV replays showed Perera getting an inside edge before the ball hit his pad, but the television umpire went along with the onfield umpire’s decision and ruled him out. It seems that there is room for human error even with the availability of slow motion replay technology.