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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

It will be an all-Asian final for the ICC Champions trophy on Sunday after Sri Lanka came up with an inspiring all-round display to oust world champs Australia by seven wickets in the second semi-final played under lights at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

Australia batting first after winning the toss were strangled by the spinners to be shot out for their lowest score - 162 against Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka replied with 163-3 off 40 overs to complete a cakewalk win with ten overs to spare. Sri Lanka will now meet India in the final tomorrow at the same venue under lights to compete for the ICC Champions trophy.

India were the losing finalists to New Zealand at the last tournament held in Nairobi in 2000. It certainly was not Australia's day yesterday. They batted like novices against spin, dropped anchorman Marvan Atapattu thrice, twice in successive balls and overall, didn't look the side they usually are.

Australia's total didn't represent any serious challenge to the Sri Lankan batting and the result of it was that the semi-final failed to live up to that of a limited overs game.

The capacity crowd of 35,000 flag-waving spectators had not much to cheer except when Jayasuriya was at the wicket. He clubbed six fours in making 42 off 51 balls and after he was deceived by Warne's flipper at 67 in the 15th over, Atapattu and Kumar Sangakkara took Sri Lanka to within 21 runs of victory before being separated.

McGrath ended the second wicket partnership of 75 off 117 balls by forcing Sangakkara to edge a catch behind with his score on 48 which was scored off 63 balls with the aid of eight fours.

Sri Lanka were in no hurry to knock the runs off and took their time over it. Atapattu missed by Ponting at eight and again twice at 25 when Hayden put down two sitters at slip off Warne in the 19th over, went onto bat for over three hours in compiling a sedate 51 off 113 balls with five fours.

He was dismissed with three runs required for victory falling lbw to McGrath. Man of the match De Silva and Jayawardene scored the required three runs to seal victory.

"This was one of our best performances. Beating Australia is not always easy. We did it professionally when we batted," said Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya.

"We knew that Australia were not so good against spin especially in our conditions and that is why I brought on Aravinda (de Silva) and Kumar (Dharmasena) early on into the attack.

"Australia are the best team in the world. But we had a plan although the first five overs cost a little bit. After that we managed to come back into the game very quickly," he said.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting described his team's performance as the worst away performance they put up for a long time.

"We got off to a very good start then the wicket started to turn a lot more than we thought early in the game. It caught our batsmen a bit unawares and we were put under pressure by their bowlers and their fielders. We just couldn't get back into the game.

"We didn't play the spinners very well. That was the turning point of the game. They brought the spinners on early and put us under pressure and we didn't cope with it. We weren't good enough today," said Ponting.

He said the way man-of-the-match De Silva bowled yesterday was a "big surprise" to all of them.

"He didn't bowl many bad balls and he bowled to his field. Sri Lanka's fielding was very very sharp today," said Ponting.

He however said the pitch was not ideal for one-day cricket. "It was too slow and low and turned too much".

Australia's total was their lowest in 44 one-day internationals against Sri Lanka, the previous low being 168-9 in 45 overs at the Sara Stadium in 1983. Their lowest in a 50-over game was 201-7 at Melbourne in 1996.

The last time Australia met Sri Lanka at this venue in 1999, they were dismissed for 202 in 50 overs and lost the Aiwa Cup final by eight wickets.

Part-time spinner and seasoned campaigner Aravinda de Silva spearheaded the Australian slump making the initial breakthrough in his first over and going on to bowl ten tight overs for just 16 runs inclusive of two maidens.

De Silva bowled danger man Matthew Hayden for 13 after Australia had got off to a flying start with 42 runs being posted on the board in the first five overs off fast bowlers Chaminda Vaas and Pulasthi Gunaratne.

De Silva said that he was quite glad that he was able to contribute to Sri Lanka's victory especially because this would definitely be the last series he will be playing at home. He said he hopes to retire from the game on a high note and that the World Cup (if he is selected) in South Africa next year would be his swangsong.

Vaas who went for 22 runs in his first three overs returned later to take the wicket of Ricky Ponting for three trapping him in front of the wicket.

But the quicks got only nine overs between them as the rest of the Sri Lankan bowling was concentrated on the spin of De Silva, Dharmasena, Muralitharan, Chandana and Jayasuriya.

On a slow turning pitch, Australia's incompetence at facing high class spin was exposed to the hilt. None of their top order batsmen got going. In addition to the accurate bowling, the fielding rose to great heights with Jayasuriya and Arnold breaking the wicket with direct hits from mid-on to run out Darren Lehmann for a duck and Damien Martyn for 28.

Australia lost their first two wickets at 49 off successive overs. After De Silva had accounted for Hayden, Dharmasena had Adam Gilchrist caught by Atapattu at mid-off for 31 scored in 24 balls (6 fours) as he drove against the spin.

Dharmasena also consumed Michael Bevan for 12 having him caught head high by Arnold at mid wicket.

Shane Warne and Brett Lee did their best to keep the Australian innings afloat putting together a stand of 46 off 83 balls before Lee played on to Jayasuriya with his score on 18.

Jayasuriya juggled his spinners judiciously not allowing Australia to settle down.

Muralitharan who had Shane Watson top edging a sweep to backward square leg, cleaned up the tail by getting rid of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath off successive balls to end with figures of three for 26.

Warne who made a top score of 36 off 69 balls (2 fours) was stumped down the leg side by Sangakkara and McGrath knew little or nothing of the first delivery he faced, as the ball spun past his bat to hit his middle stump.

AUSTRALIA

A.C. Gilchrist c Atapattu b Dharmasena	 31
M.L. Hayden b De Silva			 13
R.T. Ponting lbw b Vaas			  3
D.R. Martyn run out			 28
D.S. Lehmann run out			  0
M.G. Bevan c Arnold b Dharmasena		 12
S. Watson c Jayasuriya b Muralitharan		  7
S.K. Warne st Sangakkara b Muralitharan	 36 
B. Lee b Jayasuriya			 18
J.N. Gillespie not out			  2
G.D. McGrath b Muralitharan			  0
Extras (b-10, lb-1, w-1)			 12
Total (all out, 48.4 overs)			162

Fall of wickets: 1-49 (Hayden), 2-49 (Gilchrist),
3-56 (Ponting), 4-57 (Lehmann), 5-96 (Martyn),
6-97 (Bevan), 7-107 (Watson), 8-153 (Lee),
9-162 (Warne), 10-162 (McGrath).
Bowling: Vaas 7-2-31-1 (1w), Gunaratne 2-0-15-0, 
Dharmasena 10-1-30-2, De Silva 10-2-16-1,
Muralitharan 9.4-0-26-3, Chandana 7-0-22-0, 
Jayasuriya 3-0-11-1.

SRI LANKA

S.T. Jayasuriya b Warne			 42
M.S. Atapattu lbw b McGrath		 51
K.C. Sangakkara c Gilchrist b McGrath		 48
P.A. de Silva not out			  2 
D.P.M. Jayawardene not out			  1
Extras (b-4, lb-2, nb-6, w-7)		 19
Total (3 wkts, 40 overs)			163

Fall of wickets: 1-67 (Jayasuriya), 2-142 (Sangakkara),
3-160 (Atapattu).
Did not bat: R.P. Arnold, U.D.U. Chandana, W.P.U.J.C.
Vaas, H.D.P.K.
Dharmasena, M. Muralitharan, P.W. Gunaratne.
Bowling: McGrath 10-1-41-2 (1w), Gillespie 8-1-28-0 (2w), 
Warne 10-2-25-1(3nb), Lee 7-1-39-0 (3nb, 2w),
Lehmann 5-0-24-0 (2w).

FINAL ON SUNDAY: 

SRI LANKA v INDIA at R. Premadasa Stadium (d/n), 2.30 p.m.      

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