Australia v Sri Lanka: Live match update – ICC World Cup 2011
The ongoing match between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 and Sri Lanka hangs in the balance, as the home side has racked up 74 runs for the loss of two wickets after 15 overs at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
The Sri Lankan captain, Kumar Sangakkara, won the toss and decided to put runs on the board, as it is difficult to chase under the lights in Colombo.
Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga didn’t take any advantage of batting friendly conditions, as both of them folded for single digit scores.
Dilshan fell for a trap, as the Australian got under his skin and frustrated him with their effective sledging. As a result, the right-hander played a reckless shot in order to answer the opposition’s game-play, but only managed to bring about his own downfall.
It put the home side under pressure and Tharanga played watchfully, as he took 18 balls for his 6 runs. The pressure was mounting on him and he wanted to break the shackles, but only managed to fend a short ball from Brett Lee towards backward point, where
Steve Smith took a jumping one-handed catch.
Nevertheless, Mahela Jayawardene and Sangakkara have played vigilantly and have revived the innings to a certain extent. The pair has shared a resilient 44-run stand. Still the work is far from over, as the pair has to ensure http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 reach a high score
and one of them has to register three figures.
Australia removed the openers, but it had little effect on Sangakkara and he has looked positive from the start. The left-hander has stroked the ball perfectly and has kept the scoreboard ticking by picking up runs at will. In his 36-run knock, he has despatched
four deliveries to the fence.
Mahela has provided his captain with much needed support and has constantly picked up ones and twos, scoring 23 off 24 balls.
It isn’t happening much off the pitch, but it is not worrying the Aussie bowling line-up as they have put up a gritty bowling performance. The fast bowling duo of Brett http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lee-c72382 and Shaun Tait has bowled with genuine pace and has been able to extract steep bounce.
The opposition willowers have found it difficult to milk them for runs.
Tait has been the pick of the bowlers, grabbing 1 for 17 in a fiery four-over spell. In the start, he gave his team a perfect start by picking up Dilshan in his first over.
Lee and Mitchell Johnson have followed it up with decent spells. Lee went for some runs, though he picked up the important wicket of Tharanga. Meanwhile, Johnson kept things quiet by bowling a tight spell.
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