Mckay’s five wicket haul helped Aussies to end their losing streak
It was a match Australia had to win to end their losing streak. For Australia losing at home is not something they like that much and they had to show a very strong performance in this match to prove that they are still the lethal force they used to be.
Luckily their bowlers were able to deliver such a performance. Bowlers bowled their heart out in the match and were able to remind everyone of the Australian attack, which can dismiss any opposition on their day.
Australia made a quick finish of the visitors leaving a rather bad taste in the visitors mouth of what was one of the most impressive performances on their part in the series.
Sri Lanka after winning their first series against Australia in Australia were blown apart by some impressive bowling from Mckay and Strac, who took 9 wickets between them.
It provided the Aussies the much needed confidence before The Ashes. Sangakara won the toss and chose to bat first. In a low crowd match, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 was playing without their skipper Ponting and Clarke was acting on his place as a stand-up captain.
Mckay struck early for Australia as he took three early wickets and really took the initiative away from the Islanders of a good start. Starc did the damage in his second spell as he demolished the lower middle order with some impressive bowling. Both are
promising youngsters for the Australian side and can be lethal in One Day cricket.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 made a slow start to their innings. In the second over Sri Lanka lost its two vital wickets as Mckay struck twice in the same over. He dismissed Dilshan and Sangakara in the same over, both Sangakara and Dilshan were among the run getters in the
second One Dayer when they scored impressive 40’s.
Dilshan could not handle the extra bounce from Mckay and gave an easy catch to Hussey at square leg. Sangakara then followed with a duck as he went for a drive that took an edge and went to the keeper. Sri Lanka were suddenly 8-2 in the second over.
Jayawardene followed his form from the second match and contributed nothing on the board. He got out in the 4th over when he nicked one straight to White at second slip position off the bowling of Mckay.
Sri Lanka had lost three quick wickets and needed someone to stay till the end. Tharanga, who was man of the match in the second ODI, played with responsibility for a while and again showed the maturity by playing the ball in the gap. He was dismissed for
28 runs when in the 13th over he was trapped lbw by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326.
Silva and Mathews made a brief partnership of 31 runs between them before the hard hitting Mathews was bowled by Starc for 9 runs. Sri Lanka were struggling on 81-5 and were losing wickets regularly. Because of losing wickets regularly Sri Lanka also had
a slow run rate as it revolved around 3.60 runs per over most of the times. Starc was bowling well in that period and was not giving anything loose to the batsmen to score at. He dismissed Mendis, who made 5 runs, off a short ball when Mendis nicked one to
the keeper.
Australia would have breathed some sigh of relief as their bowling was looking in top form. One over later Charma Silva was bowled by Starc when an inside edge was deflected into his stumps. He made 33 runs for the Lankans.
The next three wickets fell quickly for the Sri Lankans as the tail-enders did not spend much time in the middle with almost 20 overs to go. Perera (3) was caught by smith off the bowling of Mckay in the 28th over. One over later Mckay got his
first five wicket haul when he bowled Randiv (7).
In the 31st over Malinga (2) was Starc’s fourth victim as the whole Sri Lankan team was dismissed for 115 in the 32nd over. Mckay and Starc were the pick of the bowlers for Australia as they took 9 wickets between them. Australia gave
a lot of wides as their extras mounted to 25, the third highest score in the Sri Lankan innings.
Johnson and Watson provided good decent spells, as Mckay finished with career best figures of 5 for 33 from his 9 over’s with one maiden.
For Australia it was one easy total to chase, and only if they had done something too stupid they would have messed up the chase.
Australia started confidently and picked boundaries in their opening overs. Both Watson and Haddin did not look in any kind of trouble as they played the first five overs with ease. In the 5th over Watson, in pursuit of pushing the score was caught
by Mathews off the bowling of Fernando. He made 15 runs with one four.
Clarke and Haddin then batted quite well and struck fours easily whenever they got the opportunity. Their run rate was constantly around 6 runs per over and were not tested by any of the Sri Lankan bowlers.
In the 13th over Haddin (31) was caught and bowled by Fernando, giving him his second wicket but it came too late for the Islanders as Australia were in a comfortable position with wickets in hand and less than 1 run required per over.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 was the pick of the batsmen for Australia as he scored a brisk 50* off 51 balls with 6 lovely boundaries and one six. In the 21st over Clarke finished the match with a straight six off the bowling of Randiv and gave Australia an easy 8
wicket win in the third match.
It was a professional and attacking batting display by the Aussies as their batting made the match a one-sided victory. Australia would be much relieved over their efforts after they were under constant criticism from almost every corner over their recent
losing patch. For Sri Lanka Fernando was the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets as no other bowler made an impact.
Sri Lanka would be happy to won the One day series but the third match did take the gloss away of their win. Mckay, for his brilliant 5 wicket haul, was named Man of the Match.
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