Australia VS SriLanka-1st Final CB Series-Match Recap
The first final of the ongoing Commonwealth Bank series played between Australia and Sri Lanka on 4th March, 2012 at Brisbane was highlighted by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DA-Warner-c1301’s match winning knock of 163. His innings was instrumental in setting up a high target
for Sri Lanka to chase on a batting pitch that ensured a quality match between the two cricketing giants.
On the Lankan’s side, late knocks by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dinesh-c54134 Kulasekara kept the fans and commentators guessing the match’s outcome till the last over.
A good opening start from the Australian openers had set the stage for a big total in the beginning. David Warner was joined in his efforts by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Matthew-Wade-c1933 to provide a solid opening start of 136. None of the other Australian batsmen could make an impressive
contribution otherwise. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MJ-Clarke-c1978 played well during the last overs.
Despite some quality bowling from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/HMRKB-Herath-c1559, Australia was able to set up an impressive total. Australia finished at 321 for 6 in their 50 overs. The eagerness to score as high as possible resulted in some quick wickets at the
end for Australia, who had lost only two wickets before crossing 200.
Sri Lanka started chasing the mammoth target with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DPMD-Jayawardene-c1397 opening alongside Tillakaratne Dilshan. However, Mahela fell in the fifth over, giving the Australians the much needed breakthrough to mount pressure on the batting side.
Disciplined and high quality bowling from the Australians restricted the Sri Lankan batsmen from hitting at ease. As a result, just after 20 overs, Sri Lanka had lost 4 important wickets for over hundred runs only.
The onus of maintaining a high run rate kept batsmen under tremendous pressure. The pursuit of over 300 runs to ensure the win had made the Kangaroos a formidable foe for the Asians. At the same time, the fighting spirit of the batting side kept the interest
and speculation alive.
This left the job to be completed by the middle order. After Lee had struck to put Australia in a dominant position, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DJ-Hussey-c1380 continued to torment the Lankans through their intelligent bowling.
Despite the adverse circumstances, Kulasekara and Tharanga found some form with the bat which raised hopes for the Asian tigers. However, Kulasekara fell in the 42nd over with Sri Lanka still needing 74 more to win from 50 balls.
The remaining overs saw http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 won by 15 runs with four balls remaining.
It was a high scoring match with enough drama and speculation as expected between two world class teams. The Lankans’ fought hard but at the end the better team won.
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