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| Saturday, 21 February 2004 |
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Australia draw first blood at Dambulla Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Dambulla DAMBULLA, Friday Australia drew first blood in the first of five one-day internationals coming up with a thoroughly professional performance to outplay Sri Lanka by 84 runs under lights at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium here today. Chasing Australia's competitive score of 262-6, Sri Lanka were bowled out for a disappointing 178 off 43.3 overs with the last five wickets tumbling for just 12 runs off 25 balls. Sri Lanka was never in the running to win the match after they lost their first three wickets for 24 runs in the seventh over. They got off to one of the worst possible starts when openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana ran themselves out needlessly within four balls of each other. Having opened together in so many matches it was pure schoolboy stuff that was enacted by these two experienced players in the middle.When skipper Marvan Atapattu was comprehensively beaten and bowled by Gillespie for one, Sri Lanka were more or less out of the game. A record fourth wicket stand of 121 off 171 balls between Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene raised hopes of a revival, but once Brett Lee had broken the threatening partnership, the rest of the batting folded like a pack of cards. Sangakkara was caught behind off Lee for 58 scored off 91 balls with three fours. Jayawardene scored 61 off 90 balls with five fours before playing on to Symonds. The pair erased Sri Lanka's previous best fourth wicket partnership of 112 between Atapattu and Jayawardene at Brisbane in 2002-03. Left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg cashed in on the uncertainty of the Sri Lankan were order batting to pick up a career best five for 41 off 9.3 overs which included a spell of five for 11 off 3.3 overs, to earn himself the man-of-the-match award. The 32-year old Western Australian had never before in his 42-match one-day international career captured five wickets in an innings. His previous best effort was 3 for 31. Openers Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden gave Australia an inspiring start posting 104 for the first wicket off 116 balls before Sri Lanka brought down the escalating run rate to reasonable proportions with their five-prong spin attack. Muttiah Muralitharan, Upul Chandana and Kumar Dharmasena stuck to their task of curbing the Australians' natural strokeplay and put the brakes on their run rate which was at one time hovering at nearly six an over. Australia who won the toss and batted first finally made 262-6 off 50 overs. The score could have been less than 250, had not Symonds exploded in the final over to hit left-arm spinner Jayasuriya for 20 runs. Symonds smashed the first three balls for fours and the last one for six to give Australia a competitive total to bowl at. He finished on 37 not out scored off 20 balls inclusive of four fours and a six. Australia's total was the highest scored on this ground beating the previous best of 203-9 off 50 overs scored by Pakistan against New Zealand last year in the Bank Alfallah Cup tournament. It was a good toss for Australia to win because they were able to avoid the extremely hot conditions experienced today. A feature of the opening pair was that they managed to hit the ball into the gaps and score the occasional boundary in an over which saw the run rate hover around a healthy five-six an over or thereabouts. Gilchrist, the aggressor of the two raced to his 37th one-day half-century by flicking Dilshan to the midwicket boundary. He faced 44 balls and hit eight fours. Sri Lanka tried six bowlers before they were able to finally break the partnership when Gilchrist mistimed a drive and gave a catch to Atapattu at extra cover. Gilchrist scored 66 off 64 balls with nine fours. Ten runs later Hayden departed when Atapattu ran him out with a brilliant piece of fielding from extra cover. He hit the stumps with a direct throw at the striker's end after Ponting had played the ball directly to the fielder. Hayden's contribution was 40 off 57 balls with three fours. Ponting and Damien Martyn added 75 off 101 balls for the third wicket, but Sri Lanka were able to grab vital wickets in the middle overs not allowing Australia to build on any big partnerships. Martyn fell for 27 when Chandana showed fine reflexes to hold onto the ball which would have been a regulation catch had not Ponting run into him. Muralitharan picked up the wickets of Michael Bevan for 21 and Michael Clarke for a duck in the 48th over to reduce Australia to 239-6. It was a good total to keep Australia under but unfortunately for them, Jayasuriya's 309th one-day international appearance which made him the most capped player for his country proved to be a nightmare as he went for 66 runs in nine overs and topped it up by running himself out for eight.
AUSTRALIA A.C. Gilchrist c Atapattu b Chandana 66 M.L. Hayden run out 40 R.T. Ponting c Dilshan b Jayasuriya 58 D.R. Martyn c and b Chandana 27 M.G. Bevan st Kaluwitharana b Muralitharan 21 A. Symonds not out 37 M.J. Clarke lbw b Muralitharan 0 G.B. Hogg not out 2 EXTRAS (LB-5, NB-1, W-5) 11 TOTAL (6 wkts inns closed, 50 overs, 194 mins) . 262 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-104 (Gilchrist), 2-114 (Hayden), 3-189 (Martyn), 4-207 (Ponting), 5-239 (Bevan), 6-239 (Clarke). Did not bat: B.A. Williams, J.N. Gillespie, B. Lee. BOWLING: Vaas 3-0-19-0 (1w), Kulasekara 3-0-18-0 (1nb), Dharmasena 10-0-49-0, Dilshan 5-0-28-0, Muralitharan 10-2-30-2 (2w), Chandana 10-0-47-2, Jayasuriya 9-0-66-1 (2w). SRI LANKA S.T. Jayasuriya run out 8 R.S. Kaluwitharana run out 2 M.S. Atapattu b Gillespie 1 K.C. Sangakkara c Gilchrist b Lee 58 D.P.M. Jayawardene b Symonds 61 T.M. Dilshan not out 18 U.D.U. Chandana lbw b Hogg 9 W.P.U.J.C. Vaas c Hayden b Hogg 0 H.D.P.K. Dharmasena st Gilchrist b Hogg 0 K.M.D.N. Kulasekara b Hogg 1 M. Muralitharan c Lee b Hogg 0 EXTRAS (B-1, LB-2, NB-4, W-13) 20 TOTAL (all out, 43.3 overs, 190 mins) 178 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-12 (Jayasuriya), 2-13 (Kaluwitharana), 3-24 (Atapattu), 4-145 (Sangakkara), 5-147 (Jayawardene), 6-166 (Chandana), 7-170 (Vaas), 8-170 (Dharmasena), 9-178 (Kulasekara), 10-178 (Muralitharan). BOWLING: Gillespie 6-2-14-1 (1w), Lee 8-1-31-1 (3nb, 3w), Williams 5-0-28-0 (1nb, 1w), Hogg 9.3-1-41-5 (7w), Clarke 5-0-21-0, Symonds 10-0-40-1. |
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