Hazlewood and Carey secure consolation win for Australia

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Australia 164 for 6 (Carey 45*, Wellalage 3-42) won Sri Lanka 160 overall (Chamika 75, Hazlewood 2-22, Cummins 2-22) for four wickets

An exhausted spin attack led by 19-year-old Dunith Wellalage made a fist defending a small chase. But ultimately, Sri Lanka’s calamitous early collapse, in which they sank 85/8, proved to be the decisive period of the match.

Australia had been in trouble at 19 for 3, then 101 for 5, but Alex Carey measured 45, which featured just one limit, took them to a target of 161 with four wickets and over 10 overs to spare.

The victory is a mere consolation for the visitors, who had already lost the series. But perhaps he offered some confidence to his bowlers, especially before the Trials. Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins had set Sri Lanka’s collapse in motion: Hazlewood got Sri Lanka’s first two goals. Matthew Kuhnemann, who will remain in the country to train with the test team and could yet be officially added, claimed two wickets for himself, with Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green each taking one.

Except for Aaron Finch’s falling catch to pardon the game’s leading scorer, Chamika Karunaratne, in the 61st, Australia again played well, causing two runs as miscommunication between the wickets continued to cost Sri Lanka. The hosts only batted 43.1 overs, with Karunaratne’s 75 from 74 balls lifting them towards semi-respectability, as he stood at wicket ninth from 58 runs with debuting closer Pramod Madushan.

Sri Lanka’s implosion had begun in the third over, when Hazlewood eliminated Pathum Nissanka and then caught Danushka Gunathilaka trying to clear midway in her next over. Dinesh Chandimal, playing this game in place of an ailing Dhananjaya de Silva, holed out long against Cummins, to make Sri Lanka 34-3.

And then, although Kusal Mendis and Charith Asalanka briefly threatened to start a recovery, they ran out of successive deliveries, both unusually. Asalanka ran out having called Mendis out for a second run before being sent back early. On the next ball, Mendis backed up too far in his box to hit Glenn Maxwell on the side of the leg, stepping on his stumps.

Three more wickets fell quickly, before a positive Karunaratne, and a careful Madushan moved into Sri Lanka’s only significant position. As Karunaratne found limits through the leg, using the sweep, slow sweep and jerk to good effect, Madushan absorbed 52 deliveries for his 15. The pair batted almost 17 overs together, with Karunaratne reaching a maiden ODI half a century later. of the 62 ball. he faced.

As Madushan departed, caught and bowled by Green, Karunaratne hit two sixes off a Marnus Labuschagne, but soon overcame a short ball from Pat Cummins and was out himself.

The Sri Lankan spinners, however, were not going to go down without a fight on another turntable. He got a little extra bounce on the surface to take Finch’s glove, the ball then slid down and gave Sri Lanka their first wicket, in the second over. Wellalage took the first of his three wickets in the next over, with David Warner caught by Danushka Gunathilaka in a nosedive at the halfway point. Josh Inglis’ first ODI innings was interrupted on his tenth ball by Theekshana, who caught him with a slip on the leg.

Yet that was as close to collapse as Australia ever got. Carey came in with the score at 50-4, and he began to rack up wisely, first alongside Marnus Labuschagne, with whom he drew a 51-run standing, then with Green, who scored the game-winning six. Carey’s only limit came from a sweep against Vandersay. And even that, only with less than 30 required.

Wellalage, Sri Lanka’s best bowler, won 3 out of 42, while Theekshana claimed 2 out of 26. Wellalage finished the highest wicket-taker in the series, having claimed nine wickets at an average of 22.33.

Andrew Fidel Fernando is the ESPNcricinfo correspondent in Sri Lanka. @afidelf



Reference-www.espncricinfo.com

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