Sri Lanka v Australia – T20 series – 1st Match Recap
Sri Lanka 198/3 (20/20 ov) v Australia 163/8 (20.0/20 ov) - http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 won by 35 runs
In the first Twenty20 International of a two-match series, the Sri Lankans defeated the visitors, Australia by 35 runs after posting a total of 198 runs on the board. The victory came after a staggering performance by the Sri Lankan skipper Tillakaratne
Dilshan, who left the opposition awestruck after rattling their bowlers and then led the side exceptionally well in the field to make life difficult for the Aussie batsmen as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 fell in their opening game of the tour to Sri Lanka at Pallekele International
Cricket Stadium.
After losing the toss, the hosts were put into bat by the Australians, aiming to bowl the hosts out before letting them post a formidable tally on the board. The Men in Gold looked dangerous as they dismissed the dependable http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DPMD-Jayawardene-c1397 on the first
delivery of the third over when the batsman had his stumps uprooted by a superb delivery bowed by Australia’s number one pacer http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Brett-Lee-c48419.
The batsman departed after making 11 runs off 11 deliveries as he hit two boundaries in his innings. At the time of his demise, the hosts had managed to post only 12 runs on the board. The early inroads by the Australians left the crowd silent as they saw
their beloved batsman walk back to the pavilion sooner than expected.
After reaching a tally of 42 runs, Sri Lanka suffered their second loss of the day when batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MG-Johnson-c1945. The batman walked off
the field after making 11 runs off 11 deliveries.
It was then time for the former skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KC-Sangakkara-c1779 to take the field and help the reigning skipper pulverise the opposition as both batsmen showed great class in their batting by standing defiant against the Australian bowling brigade that kept bolting
in deliveries at the batsmen in a bid to restrict them from playing freely.
Dilshan, who had a terrible tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 last month where he suffered a broken finger due to which he was left out of the second and third Test and then lacked in form during the one-day games, looked in spectacular form against the Australians by playing
under home conditions as the hard-hitting batsman took the Australian bowlers to task by handing them a ruthless pounding.
In the 13th over, Sangakkara lost his wicket after playing a knock of 30 runs off 22 deliveries when he was caught by the Australian T20 skipper Cameron White at midwicket off the bowling of Shane Watson. At the time of his departure, Sri Lanka
had scored 98 for the loss of three wickets.
At this point in time, Australia had managed to squeeze the flow of runs; nonetheless, Dilshan went ballistic and became impossible to be stopped by the bowlers as the batsman clobbered a blissful innings of 104 runs off 57 deliveries by batting alongside
Jeevan Mendis taking the total score to 198 runs.
Coming out to bat, the Australians suffered their first loss in the third over when http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SE-Marsh-c2470 (4),
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DJ-Hussey-c1380 (6) and Cameron White (7) fell without reaching double figures.
Meanwhile on the other end, opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gareth-Berg-c1457.
The batsman lost his wicket in the 16th over after playing a brave innings of 53 runs when he was caught by Dilshan at extra cover off the bowling of Kulasekara.
Later down the order, Mitchell Johnson and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Harold-William-Stephenson-c61707 O'Keefe contributed 22 runs each to save the game; however, their efforts went reward less, as Australia could only muster 163 runs after playing 20 overs.
The Sri Lankan skipper Dilshan was named as the Man of the Match for giving an astounding performance with the bat. The two sides will now face off at the same venue in the second T20 International on 8 August, 2011.
Tags: