Gilchrist ton sets up Aussie victory

ELMO Rodrigopulle reporting from Australia

PERTH, Western Australia, Sunday - Adam Gilchrist, the stand-in skipper came roaring back to form with a ruthless attack on the Sri Lankan bowlers to blast 116 in 105 balls with 11 fours and 4 sixes and take his side to a comfortable 6-wicket victory in a Victoria Bitter triangular game before a sell- out crowd at WACA under lights here today.

It was a typical Gilchrist blast as he took the bowlers to the cleaners with some amazing stroke-play that had the spectators stunned.

Gilchrist shared a first wicket stand of 191 with the solid Simon Katich in 32.2 overs which took the fight out of the Lankans who made 233 for 8 and allowed the Aussies to romp home making a score of 234 for 4 with 54 balls to spare.

Gilchrist entertained his home crowd with the display of stroke-play rarely seen in Perth. From the first ball, fours and sixes simply flowed from his willow as he punched holes in the field placing and lofted huge sixes as he pleased during his 14th career century.

No Lankan bowler could stall his progress. He knocked Akalanka Ganegama out of the firing line bashing him for 20 runs in one over. He was given a standing ovation by his home crowd and was easily the man-of-the-match.

Simon Katich who has not been in good form also came back to form with a well executed 82 in 110 balls with 7 fours.

The Lankan bowlers were off line during the Gilchrist exhibition and the fielding too left much to be desired with several catches being grassed.

The Lankans would do well to forget this thrashing as a bad dream and come back determined when they play South Africa in a vital game at the same venue under lights on Tuesday.

A big crowd kept streaming into the ground and as usual Sri Lankan supporters were sporting their colours and as the game progressed kept shouting themselves hoarse cheering the Lankan cricketers on.

Before the toss, regular skipper Marvan Atapattu failed to pass a fitness test with his back problem still persisting, while Sanath Jayasuriya was cleared to take his stance.

Chaminda Vaas captaining his first full game made it a memorable one when he beat Adam Gilchrist to the toss and gave his side first lease.

Sanath Jayasuriya in one of his rare failures went early without scoring and playing tentatively to Lee to be caught behind gleefully by Gilchrist. Lanka's first wicket went down at 6.

The second wicket went down on 16 when the usually reliable Kumar Sangakkara was unnecessarily sacrificed going for a run that was not there.

It was poor thinking by Jehan Mubarak the striker and Sangakkara.With so many overs to go one could not understand the hurry. Andrew Symonds was spot on with a diving throw.

In the meantime Mubarak who has the knack of putting the bowlers on top with his painfully slow batting and getting the run rate stuck, thankfully left with the score on 27 having made 15 in 34 valuable deliveries.

It was left to Mahela Jayawardena and Russel Arnold not only to repair the innings, but also quicken the rate of scoring which was snail paced by the listless effort of Mubarak early on.

Once again Jayawardena played an innings full of character and responsibility. Together with Arnold who was promoted in the batting order, they began to push the singles and get the score moving and in the process not letting the Aussie bowlers have their way Together they added an invaluable 121 in deliveries and added respectability to the score. Jayawardena completed his 4th half century of the series which was a great achievement.

Arnold who everytime he goes has to play to keep his place, made use of the promotion to make a useful 56 in 87 balls with one four. His 50 came in 79 balls. It was an innings that came at the right time.

Jayawardena who tried to break the shackles tried a big hit and McGrath running round the square-leg boundary took a good catch off Symonds. He made 69 in 93 balls with his 50 in 70 balls with 3 fours.

Tillakaratne Dilshan and teenager Chamara Kapugedera got the innings with a quick stand of 54 runs in 43 balls. Dilshan batted very intelligently and made 35 in 33 balls with 3 fours.

Kapugedera showed good temperament in making 22 on debut. He did not seem overawed by the occasion and played like a veteran. What he now needs is the all important continuity.

In making 233, the batsmen gave their bowlers a total to bowl at. Had it not been for the slow start, the Lankans could have made more runs.

As for the bowlers Brett Lee and Stuart Clark had 2 wickets each for 42 and 40 respectively.

SRI LANKA

J. Mubarak c Hodge b Clark 		 15
S. Jayasuriya c Gilchrist b Lee  	  0
K. Sangakkara run out 			  6
M. Jayawardene c McGrath b Symonds 	 69
R. Arnold c Clarke b Clark  		 56
T. Dilshan run out 			 35
C. Kapugedera c Hogg b Lee  		 22
C. Vaas not out   			  6
N. Kulasekara run out  			  0
M. Muralitharan not out 		  3
Extras (lb-12 w-9)                 	 21
TOTAL (for 8 wickets, 50 overs)  	233

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-6 2-16 3-27 4-147 5-170 6-224 7-225 8-227
DID NOT BAT: D. Fernando                              

BOWLING: B. Lee 10-0-42-2 (w-1), G. McGrath 10-2-35-0 (w-1) 
         S. Clark 10-0-40-2 (w-1), A. Symonds 10-0-54-1 (w-1) 
         B. Hogg 10-0-50-0 (w-1).

AUSTRALIA INNINGS
A. Gilchrist c & b Muralitharan 	116
S. Katich b Vaas  			 82
B. Hodge c Sangakkara b Fernando 	  2
D. Martyn not out  			 14
A. Symonds c Jayawardene b Vaas 	  5
M. Clarke not out 			  6
Extras (nb-5 w-4)   			  9
TOTAL (for 4 wickets, 41 overs)  	234

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-191 2-200 3-209 4-221
DID NOT BAT: M. Hussey, B. Hogg, B. Lee, G. McGrath, S. Clark

BOWLING: C. Vaas 8-1-40-2, D. Fernando 9-0-52-1 (nb-4 w-3) 
         N. Kulasekara 8-1-34-0 (w-1), A. Ganegama 1-0-20-0
         M. Muralitharan 10-0-53-1 (nb-1), T. Dilshan 3-0-24-0
         S. Jayasuriya 2-0-11-0.