Sri Lanka tour to Australia ends in acrimony

We play it hard, they play it hard – Angelo Mathews :

Heat of the moment stuff - Georg Bailey:

Elmo Rodrigopulle reporting from Australia

The near two month Sri Lanka cricket tour of Australia which finished in a last ball victory by three runs for Sri Lanka at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Monday ended in acrimony.

Acrimony between the two teams first showed when Muttiah Muralitheran was ‘called’ by Umpire Darrel Hair during the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and then in 1999 in Adelaide when umpire Ross Emerson ‘called’ the bowler.

What sparked the incident was when Glenn Maxwell hit the 4th and 5th balls of Thisara Perera bowling the final over for fours. A four off the final ball would have taken Australia to victory and a squared the two-match series.

Huddled together

The Lankan players huddled together planning as to how Perera should send down the last ball. What annoyed the Lankans was when Maxwell shouted to them to get on with the game and not waste time.

It annoyed the usually calm and collected Jayewardene who shouted back at Maxwell and the pair exchanged verbals immediately after the final ball was bowled and a victory for Sri Lanka by 3 runs.

Sri Lanka made 161 for 4 in their20 overs, thanks to a masterly knock from Jayawardene unbeaten on 61 in 45 deliveries, Jeevan Mendis 25 from 24 and a belligerent 35 not out from Thisara Perera in just 15 deliveries.

Classic knock

It was a classic knock from Jayawardene, playing probably his final innings for his country in Australia. He held the batting together with Mendis and Perera, plundering 20 runs in the final over which took the game away from the home team.

Australia was 60 for 2 from 10 over when 45 minutes of play was lost due to rain. Australia restarted with a revised Duckworth/Lewis target of 122 from 15 overs and finished on 119 for 3.

While walking back after the game a few Australians players were seen arguing with Jayewardene during the on-field handshakes.

What was admirable was seeing Jayewardene standing his ground and giving it back to the Aussies watched by a 39,247 fans, mostly Sri Lankans.

Heat of the moment

‘It was just the heat of the moment. Things happen you just exchange a few words.

They play it hard. We play it hard. So that’s it. After the game we are friends’, said Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews who made a memorable start to his Twenty20 career as captain winning the two-match series.

‘Passion mate .People care about the game and care about the way they play it. I know we get along very well with the side.

Even just the chats there are coming off. I think it is just the heat-of- the moment stuff.

But I think what you are seeing is individual and teams that are pretty keen to win’ said the Aussie captain George Bailey.