Australia v Sri Lanka – One Day International Series – 4th Match Recap
Sri Lanka 132 v Australia 133 -
Australia won by 5 wickets (with 132 balls remaining)
In the ongoing One Day International (ODI) series between hosts Sri Lanka and Australia, the tourists took the series by 3-1 after beating the Lankans in the fourth match at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
After winning the toss, the Sri Lankans who needed a victory to level the series, chose to bat first in a bid to post maximum number of runs on the board for the tourists to chase.
However, the Aussies made a breakthrough on the penultimate delivery of the sixth over when the Lankan skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DE-Bollinger-c1348. The batsman walked back to the pavilion
after scoring 12 runs off 15 deliveries.
With Dilshan out of action it was time for the former skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KC-Sangakkara-c1779 to take the field to prevent the home side from losing the series to Australia.
However, in the seventh over express pacer http://www.senore.com/Cricket/WU-Tharanga-c2802 who was beaten by Lee’s delivery after playing an innings of eight runs off 22 balls. At the time of his departure, the Lankans had managed to post 24 runs
on the board for the loss of two wickets.
It was then time for the Lankan pros Sangakkara and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DPMD-Jayawardene-c1397 to forge a partnership in order to raise a stiff resistance against the Aussies as the batsmen exhibited exuberant batting display, giving the home crowd plenty to cheer about.
At the time the two batsmen were on the crease things seemed to be heading in the right direction of Sri Lanka as they appeared to be eyeing a formidable total against the opposition.
However, in the 26th over, Sangakkara after smashing an innings of 31 runs off 56 deliveries was caught by Lee at long-on off the bowling of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/XJ-Doherty-c2804. At the time of his departure Sri Lanka had posted 95 runs for the loss of three wickets.
Doherty struck in the same over when he removed http://www.senore.com/Cricket/LPC-Silva-c1848 for nil, stirring up a hornet’s nest within the ranks of the Lankans.
The Aussie youngster struck again in the 28th over when he dismissed http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AD-Mathews-c913 as the batsman was stumped by Haddin after knocking six runs from the bat.
Sri Lanka hit rock bottom when Jayawardene after playing a knock of 53 runs off 102 deliveries was caught and bowled by Lee in the 39th over of the Lankan innings.
In the end the hosts could bolster only 132 runs on the board, giving a meagre tally to the Aussies to overcome.
Coming out to bat, the Australians had their sights set on a series victory as they knew that the total at hand was not formidable enough to pose a challenge to their batting line-up.
The visitors went in with opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SE-Marsh-c2470 to wreck havoc on the home side right from the word go.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/BAW-Mendis-c1127 at mid-on.
Malinga struck again on the penultimate delivery of the same over when he removed veteran http://www.senore.com/Cricket/RT-Ponting-c2377 for nil. At this point in time the Australians were on 26 runs for the loss of two wickets.
It was then http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MJ-Clarke-c1978 who steered their side to an imminent victory as both batsmen took to the Lankan bowlers by smashing them all over the park at will.
Marsh, fell to his demise in the 27th over when after playing a sensational innings of 70 runs the batsman was removed by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Seekkuge-Prasanna-c89140 at the time when the Aussies needed just needed 10 more runs for victory.
Prasanna tried to do the impossible as he grabbed two more wickets in the same over giving the Lankan fans one last glimmer of hope as he sent Michael and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DJ-Hussey-c1380 back to the pavilion without letting them score a run.
Nonetheless, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 who scored 38 runs took the team to the series victory alongside Haddin who knocked five runs from the bat.
From http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 Prasanna was the most successful bowler with three wickets.
Doherty was named as the Man of the Match for his commendable show with the ball.
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