Lankan batting fails to cope with Bracken’s pace

Ranjan ANANDAPPA in Australia

Aided by some indecisive batting from Sri Lanka and spearheaded by the left arm paceman Nathan Bracken (5 for 47) and Brett Lee, Sri Lanka’s batting was demolished by Australia, as the host nation beat Sri Lanka by 123 runs in their Commonwealth Bank limited over series in a terribly lop sided game at the Sydney Cricket ground yesterday.

Sri Lankans could only blame themselves for not timing their innings and making sure that the 50 overs were occupied, which was the strategy that they should have adopted for victory.

Chasing a victory target of 254 off 50 overs Sri Lanka were all out for 125 in 31.3 overs.

Sri Lanka gave a mockery of a batting display. One reason for the Sri Lankan rashness was that the Aussie pacemen’s nagging length and accuracy that runs were not easy to come by. The Aussie bowling and lack of strategic planning in Sri Lankan batting was the decisive factor in Australia’s win.

Once Bracken and Lee provided the early break through dismissing Tharanga and Jayasuriya for 18 and skipper Jayawardena playing an injudicious shot and half the side out for 81 the match was as good as over. Only wicket keeper Kumar Sangakkara who hammered an attractive 42 off 41 deliveries with 7 fours played an innings worthwhile mentioning.

Mahela’s rash stroke not worthy of a batsman of his class and experience came at a time needlessly when Sangakkara was batting beautifully at the other end and scoring quickly.

This was the downfall of the innings and the batsmen who followed did not show any grit in trying to challenge the total. Dilshan struck a beautiful six over mid on and in the same over tried to repeat the same shot that caused his downfall disappointingly.

Play started on time with high clouds but no signs of rain. Ponting won the toss and elected to bat and skipper Mahela Jayawardena surprisingly went on the defensive in the third over of the match and paid the penalty. Opener Mathew Hayden edged one off Vaas past the slip area where Jayawardena himself was fielding.

Jaywardena had moved away from the slip position and Hayden had a lucky escape edging a ball at a comfortable catching height. The left handed opener was living dangerously although most of the runs came through his bat. In the first over of Malinga, he nearly lost his wicket when he almost dragged one onto his stumps off an inside edge.

Hayden after facing 50 deliveries was caught by Jayawardena for 42 with five fours. Gilchrist who was playing the quieter role got into his stride in the 13th over and kept the scoreboard moving.

The soggy outfield restricted the number of boundaries. Gilchrist after adding 65 runs for the opening wicket looked more of the authentic Gilchrist. He struck Amarasinghe for two fours and continued his run spree when finally Kapugdedera trapped him lbw while sweeping. Gilchrist’s innings contained five fours and a six and he had faced 81 balls.

None of the Australian batsmen really played a domineering innings besides Michael Clark who was unbeaten on 77 at the end adding a precious 63 runs for the seventh wicket with James Hopes (34). Clarke also put on 51 runs for the third wicket with Symonds the danger man.

The Sri Lankan bowlers rallied around their captain and bowled exceptionally well. They gave a disciplined display while bowling. It took 37 overs for the Lankans to register a run in the extras column. They did well to restrict their opponents for 75 runs in the last 10 overs.

Vaas accounted for two valuable wickets when he first had Ponting batting at number three caught by Jayawardena in the gully and Symonds snapped up by Kapugedera in the covers that put Australia in spot of bother.

The Aussies firmly believed that a total excess of 250 would be a challenging score and they worked towards it.

The lack of pace in the wicket was not conducive for stroke play, it was clearly demonstrated while the Australians were batting as they managed only 14 fours and two sixes in their innings of 253 for 6. Sri Lankans were quite impressive in their fielding and apart from the first mistakes which let Hayden off the hook, field setting too was quite purposeful.
 

AUSTRALIA
 
A. Gilchrist lbw Kapugedera		61
M. Hayden c Jayawardene b Amerasinghe	42
R. Ponting c Jayawardene b Vaas		 9
M. Clarke not out			77
A. Symonds c Kapugedara b Vaas		12
M. Hussey c Dilshan b Amerasinghe	10
J. Hopes c Dilshan b Malinga		34
B. Lee not out				 0
Extras (2lb, 6w)			 8
TOTAL (for six wickets)			253
FALL: 65 (Hayden), 88 (Ponting), 139 (Gilchrist), 
160 (Symonds), 190 (Hussey) 
BOWLING: Vaas 10-1-34-2, Malinga 10-0-55-1 (5w), Amerasinghe 10-0-66-2 (1w), 
Muralitharan 10-0-42-0, Kapugedera 10-0-54-1. 

SRI LANKA
 
U. Tharanga c Gilchrist b Bracken	10
S. Jayasuriya b Lee			 7
K. Sangakkara lbw Bracken		42
M. Jayawardene c Gilchrist b Johnson	 6
C. Silva c Gilchrist b Hogg		 7
T. Dilshan c Lee b Bracken		14
C. Kapugedera c Hayden b Bracken	 0
C. Vaas run out				18
L. Malinga run out			 2
M. Muralitharan c Symonds b Bracken	11
I. Amerasinghe not out			 0
Extras (3lb, 4w, 1nb)			 8
TOTAL					125
FALL: 18 (Jayasuriya), 18 (Tharanga), 57 (Jayawardene), 74 (Sangakkara),
 81 (Silva), 84 (Kapugedera), 93 (Dilshan), 105 (Malinga), 
114 (Vaas), 125 (Muralitharan). 
BOWLING: Lee 7-1-34-1 (1nb, 1w), Bracken 8.3-1-46-5 (1w), 
Johnson 5-3-9-1, Hopes 5-0-16-0, Hogg 6-1-17-1 (1w).