Sri Lanka bounced back in the series by defeating Australia– 2nd ODI

Sri Lanka 172 (Lahiru Thirimanne 102*, Tillakaratne Dilshan 51, Ben Cutting 1-42) beat Australia 170 (Brad Haddin 50, David Hussey 29, Lasith Malinga 3-32) by eight wickets.

A superb century from Lahiru Thirimanne assisted by a fifty by Tillakaratne Dilshan made things easier for Sri Lanka to win the one sided match vs. Australia.

The Australian innings was squeezed for 170 with 19 balls to spare and Sri Lanka hammered 172 runs for the loss of just two wickets in 40.1 overs.

Lahiru Thirimanne - A scintillating unbeaten knock of 102 runs
Lahiru Thirimanne – A scintillating unbeaten knock of 102 runs

Lahiru Thirimanne (Sri Lanka) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his scintillating unbeaten innings of 102 runs.

The second Test of the five match series was played on Sunday, January 13, 2013, at Adelaide Oval.

Earlier, Mahela Jayawardene, the captain of Sri Lanka, won the toss and offered the batting to the Australian team. The hosts started off badly when Aaron Finch was gone at four and was replaced by their skipper, Gorge Bailey. The latter was dropped at two runs by Jeevan Mendis at extra cover off Angelo Mathews on the fifth ball of the sixth over. The hosts lost another wicket in the next over when Phillip Hughes was declared leg before wicket off Nuwan Kulasekara for just three runs. David Hussey came in next when Bailey hit the first four of the innings in the 10th over as the first survived a run out chance.

Hussy got two back to back fours in the 15th over and Bailey became the next victim for 26 as the score reached 51 in 16.4 overs. The Lankan Lions bowlers took over and the Kangaroos batsmen found it hard to score the runs freely. The wickets kept on sliding at regular intervals and David Hussey was the fifth batsman who went back to the dressing room for 29 and the sixth wicket was down at 83 in 24.1 overs.

Brad Haddin and Ben Cutting got together and tried to provide some stability to the innings. The first hundred of the innings was posted on board with a four from Haddin in the 31st over as the duo kept on crawling with occasional boundaries. The seventh wicket partnership contributed 57 runs in 91 deliveries when Cutting was caught by Kushal Perera off Lasith Malinga for 27. Brad Haddin played a responsible innings of 50 scored from 67 balls with 1 six and 4 fours as the entire team was bowled out for 170 in 46.5 overs.

Lasith Malinga was the chief wicket taker with three, Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera got two each whereas Nuwan Kulasekara and Ajantha Mendis shared one wicket each.

Sri Lanka did not have a good start even as Upul Tharanga was gone without scoring on the third ball of the innings. Lahiru Thirimanne joined in with Tillakaratne Dilshan and they started their march towards the target without taking any risk. The score went past the fifty runs mark in the 15th over as Thirimanne was dropped at 35 by Steven Smith off Xavier Doherty on the third ball of the 18th over. He was the most aggressive of the two as Dilshan kept on securing his end with odd fours.

Lahiru Thirimanne achieved his fifth ODI half century in the 24th over and the fearless pair enhanced the score to 100 during the 27th over. Dilshan kept on creeping and attained his 29th ODI fifty in the 31st  overs and the score was enhanced to 137 in 33.4 overs when he lost his wicket for 51 off 88 balls with 4 fours. The visitors required 34 runs to win the game from 98 deliveries when the debutant Kushal Perera walked in the center and opened his account with a single on the first ball he faced.

Perera added 11 runs in the 38th over with 1 six and 1 four as Lahiru Thirimanne thrashed his maiden ODI ton on the first ball of the 41st over with a four. He remained unbeaten for 102 off 134 balls with 12 fours and Kushal Perera held his end with 14 as Sri Lanka smashed 172 runs with 59 balls to spare.

Clint McKay and Ben Cutting were the only successful bowlers with one wicket each.

Sri Lanka won the second One Day International with a huge margin of eight wickets and the five match series is leveled at 1-1. The third ODI of the series will be played on January 18, 2013, at Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane.


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.