Australia captain Michael Clarke’s inspired start to 2012 continued when he led his side to victory over Sri Lanka in their Tri-Series One-Day International (ODI) at the WACA Ground.
Man-of-the-match Clarke had an impact with both bat and ball as Australia won by five runs to remain unbeaten after two outings in the tournament. Australia made 231 from 49.1 overs before Sri Lanka were dismissed off the penultimate delivery for 226, after a last-wicket stand almost snatched an unlikely win for the tourists.
Sri Lanka did well with the ball after captain Mahela Jayawardene elected to field as only Clarke managed a half-century, top-scoring with 57. Superb fielding helped the tourists, with a couple of fine catches, highlighted by Nuwan Kulasekara’s caught and bowled to remove the dangerous Michael Hussey for 23.
However, last year’s beaten World Cup finalists were not as effective with the bat and looked headed for certain defeat at 180 for nine, still needing 51 to win. But Angelo Mathews and Dhammika Prasad put on 46 for the last wicket to threaten to snatch an incredible win.
The pair needed 18 to win from the final over and Mathews hit the first two Mitchell Starc deliveries for four and six to narrow the equation to eight from four balls. Two singles left them chasing six from the last two balls, but Mathews (64) holed out to hand the Australia a thrilling victory.
Australia captain pleased
Clarke was relieved after Australia registered their second win in the tournament.
“Our bowlers deserved a lot of credit,” said Clarke. “We were probably 25 to 30 runs short on that pitch. It was a bit slow and I felt a little bogged down with the bat but tried to hang in there with the other guys. We need to play better than this if we have to beat the World Cup finalists.”
Sri Lanka earlier appeared to be cruising at 61 for one, but suffered a blow when Kumar Sangakkara was run out in a mix-up with Tillakaratne Dilshan. They found it hard to recover and Clarke’s inspired season continued when he brought himself on for a rare bowl in the 31st over.
Dinesh Chandimal was on 37 and appeared to be Sri Lanka’s last real hope of victory, but he was trapped leg-before off Clarke’s first delivery.
Jayawardene, who saw his team lose the second successive game, admitted the team made a few mistakes to lose the plot.
“It was a great effort from Mathews,” said Jayawardene. “But we gave away too many wickets in the middle overs to lose our way. We did the hard work but we didn’t get a couple of big stands with the bat. They put a lot of pressure on our guys. We made a few mistakes and we didn’t deserve to win.”
The next match sees India face Australia in Adelaide tomorrow.
Michael Clarke
“We were probably 25-30 runs short. The pitch was a bit slow and I felt a little bogged down but tried to hang in there with the other guys. We need to play better than this if we have to beat the two World Cup finalists.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 11th, 2012.
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