Now move on to Sydney and Melbourne for Twenty20 games:

Skipper Jayawardene happy with effort

Poor batting led to 32-run defeat against Australia:

Elmo Rodrigopulle reporting from Australia

The promised memorable farewell to skipper Mahela Jayewardene by winning the five match ODI and series did not materialize because of some unimaginative batting in the final Commonwealth Bank one day series game at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart and had to be satisfied with a shared series - 2-2 with the game in Sydney being abandoned due to rain..

When Philip Hughes made a fighting century to remain unbeaten on 138 in 159 balls and take Australia to 247 in 50 overs, the Sri Lankans who love to and are famed for chasing, other than for Jayawardene 38 in 39 and Angelo Mathews 67 in 79, batted miserably.

With the target gettable, what the batmen had to do was to have a plan and chase the runs over by over without getting bogged down and allowing the opposition to slap on the pressure.

Set the tone

The openers, especially Jayawardene set the tone and showed the way. But once he went, the usually aggressive Dilshan got stuck, and could crawl to 19 in 48 balls which slowed the progress.

Like Jayewardene said at the after match media briefing, it was probably the 15th to 30th over that was a killer for them. ‘We lost 4 to 5 wickets. Mathews and Mendis put up a decent stand, but things did not go right’.

Jayawardene praised the Hobart wicket saying it was a good one to bat with the ball coming on nicely and it stayed that way even in the night. ‘

We have chased very well in the last 4 or 5 times. We have beaten Australia comfortably and even India beat us chasing over 300 runs on this wicket’.

Skipper no regrets

Jayawardene had no regrets saying that they had a game plan and bowled very well creating pressure. We also batted very well. ‘We can take something very positive from the entire series. Sydney was a bit disappointing. Even here today it was a bit disappointing’.

Jayawardene further said that anything under 250 was gettable.

’We have done a lot of good things in the series bringing in 3 or 4 youngsters during the past few months. I am quite happy with the boys and the management for giving me good support during the past 12 months’, said the outgoing skipper.

The skipper who has done so much for the game and country would have liked to sign off with the one day series triumph under his belt. But the cricketing gods had decreed otherwise.

Batsmen lack purpose

After the bowlers had done their bit, had the batsmen showed more intense and purpose, they could have lowered Aussie pride after the Test series whitewash and flown back with the Commonwealth Bank Trophy.

But the Lankans can be proud with their effort in the one day series, because they showed that the high riding Aussies are vulnerable and can be beaten under pressure.

The Lankans now fly to Sydney and then to Melbourne for the two Twenty20 games, looking to win and end the two-month tour of Australia in style. Hobart, Tasmania, Thursday.