Aussies easily by 116 runs:

Sri Lankans beaten again
 

ELMO Rodrigopulle reporting from Australia

TELSTRA DOME, MELBOURNE, Friday - The mighty Australians gave another ruthless performance to strangle the Sri Lankans and beat them by 116 runs in the first game of the Victoria Bitter series at the Telstra Dome under lights before a crowd of 33,930 spectators.

After smashing 318 for 5 in their allotted 50 overs, the Aussies restricted the Lankans to 202 for 7 in 50 overs.

As for the Lankans the least said the better. At the moment their game is in disarray and how they could raise their game would be interesting to watch.

Chasing 319 for victory, they lost opener Upul Tharanga in Brett Lee's second ball of the first over for 2 with the score on 2, which signalled the procession as batsmen came and went, unable to get their strokeplay, which is so important in this style of game, in motion.

Michael Vandort, who was the supersub showed good form to make 48 in 118 balls. Although he was slow, this knock would have done his confidence bags of good.

The other batsmen who made somewhat useful scores were Mahela Jayawardena 50 in 47 balls with 4 fours, Tillekeratne Dilshan with 29 and Russel Arnold remained not out on 28.

Brett Lee who bowled a devastating first spell to dismiss openers Tharanga and Jehan Mubarak finished with 2 for 29 in 7 overs and Nathan Bracken had 2 for 11 in 8. Supersub Brad Hogg bowled and finished with 1 for 57 from 10.

After the game Ponting said that at the start the wicket was a bit uneven with the ball not coming on to the bat, which made batting a bit difficult. Although the wicket improved as the game progressed, the Lankans failed to take advantage and surrendered the game.

Andrew Symonds was named man of the match for his blazing 60.

Skipper Marvan Atapattu called correctly beating Ricky Ponting to the toss and it came as a surprise when he asked the run hungry Australians to bat. Atapattu's decision only went to prove the lack of confidence that is prevailing in the team.

From the first ball it was obvious that the wicket was ideal for batting the manner in which openers Adam Gilchrist and Simon Katich went about making runs.

The openers rattled up 25 quick runs and seemed to be going on well when left-armer Ruchira Perera struck having the dangerous looking Gilchrist LBW for 13 with the score on 25.

Perera who was continuing to bowl good line and length gave one drop batsman Ricky Ponting a torrid time, striking painful blows on his fingers and leaving the batsman struggling to get bat to ball.

Ponting who has made a shipfull of runs this summer did not last long when Perera knocked back his stumps for 13 with the score on 58. It was a rare failure for Ponting.

Simon Katich and Damien Martyn then began to construct the innings playing some audacious strokes.

Martyn who is unfortunately out of the Test team continued from where he left off against the South Africans where he blasted 96 in 20 x 20 and caned the Lankan bowlers to make 70 with 4 fours and 2 sixes in 64 balls.

He was bowled by Dilhara Fernando going for a big hit with the score on 132. He added 74 for the third wicket with Katich.

Katich who was batting sensibly was joined by Andrew Symonds who was given a rousing welcome. While Katich pushed the score along, big hitting Symonds began to play the way he knows by belting the ball to the four boundaries and over it has well.

Katich and Symonds began to make mincemeat of the Lankan bowlers and added 106 for the 4th wicket before Katich was run out for a well made 60 with 5 fours in 79 balls with the score on 238.

Symonds who was continuing to massacre the bowlers was out in freak fashion, when a ball he drove uppishly took the non striker Michael Clarke's bat and lobbed to Dilshan at mid on off Jehan Mubarak at the same score.

Symonds made 60 with 5 fours and 4 sixes in 61 balls The two Michaels, Clarke and Hussey then took the home team to 318 without further loss putting on 80 in 64 balls, with Clarke making 45 and Hussey 34.

All the Lankan bowlers went for runs with Vaas 73 in 10, Fernando 60 in 10, Muralitharan 67 in 10 and Dilshan 55 in 8 proving very most expensive. Ruchira Perera proved the most successful with 2 for 45 off 10.

There were 23 fours and 8 sixes in the Australian innings.

 AUSTRALIA INNINGS

A. Gilchrist  lbw b Perera		13
S. Katich run out			60
R. Ponting  b Perera			13
D. Martyn b Fernando			70
A. Symonds c Dilshan b Mubarak		66
M. Clarke not out 			45
M. Hussey  not out              	34
EXTRAS (LB-8, NB-3, W-6)		17
TOTAL (for 5 wickets, 50 overs)		318
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-25 2-58 3-132 4-238 5-238
Did not bat: J. Hopes, B. Lee, 
N. Bracken, G. McGrath                        
BOWLING C. Vaas 10-0-73-0 (nb-1), 
R. Perera 10-0-45-2 (nb-2), 
D. Fernando 10-0-60-1 (w-2), 
M. Muralitharan 10-0-67-0 (w-2), 
T. Dilshan 8-0-55-0 (w-1), 
J. Mubarak 2-0-10-1 

SRI LANKA INNINGS

U. Tharanga  b Lee			 2
J. Mubarak c Ponting b Lee   		 1
M. Vandort run out			48
K. Sangakkara b Bracken			16
T. Dilshan b Bracken 			29
M. Jayawardene c&b Hopes		50
M. Atapattu c Katich b Hogg 		 9
R. Arnold not out 			28
C. Vaas  not out 			 7
EXTRAS (B-1, LB-3, W-8)			12
TOTAL (for 7 wickets, 50 overs) 	202
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-2 2-11 3-32 
4-93 5-118 6-137 7-176
Did not bat: R. Perera, D. Fernando    
BOWLING B. Lee  7-0-29-2 (w-4), 
G. McGrath 9-1-30-0 (w-1), 
N. Bracken  8-2-11-2, 
J. Hopes 9-1-35-1 (w-1), 
B. Hogg 10-0-57-1 (w-2), 
 A. Symonds 4-0-20-0, 
M. Clarke 3-0-16-0,