But the Lankan batters came up with an absolutely shocking performance, one of their worst with the bat, in recent times and lost by 128 runs.

Chasing a modest target of 253, the Sri Lankans surrendered and were bowled out for 125 with more than 18 overs to spare. Only Kumar Sangakkara, with 42 in 41 balls, walked away with his head held up high.

This is also Sri Lanka’s second lowest total against Australia in ODIs.

The SCG was packed with Sri Lankan supporters yesterday and the team’s sorry performance was broke the heart of thousands of fans here and millions of viewers all around the world.

Not very often you bowl out Australia for 253 and the batsmen should have backed up the excellent effort of the bowlers by winning with the bonus point, but their performance was shocking to tell the least as the top

seven batsmen departed with just 93 runs on the board.

The dismissal of Mahela Jayawardene triggered a sensational collapse. While he led the side admirably on the field, his failure with the bat to guide the team by example hurt Sri Lanka a lot.

After Sanath Jayasuriya (07) and Upul Tharanga (10) had departed in successive balls, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara started the repair work with a 39 run stand for the third wicket. Sangakkara was going great and hit Brett Lee for 16 runs in an over and was batting as well as he did during the Test series here a couple of months back.

His onslaught even forced captain Ricky Ponting to take Lee off the attack and when all what he needed to do was to play second fiddle to his vice-captain, Jayawardene stepped out to Mitchell Johnson and spooned a simple catch to Adam Gilchrist behind the stumps.

While his dismissal took off the momentum, it also paved way for a great Sri Lankan collapse, as the middle order comprising Chamara Silva (07), Tillekeratne Dilshan (14) and Chamara Kapugedara (0) were all dismissed cheaply.

Sri Lanka will now travel to Canberra to take on India on Tuesday and they are required to put in a lot of hard work to get their batting right.

Although the loss was a massive disappointment, what was more disturbing

was the fact that none of the seven batsmen managed to get a 50.

The tourists, however, did spectacularly well to restrict the strong Australian batting line up to 253 for six.

Although Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist put on 65 runs for the first wicket, they were not allowed to go on a rampage. Ishara Amarasinghe, who was impressive in Brisbane, did well here too and picked up Hayden for 61 while Vaas got Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds. Vaas bowled well in his second and third spells.

Chamara Kapugedara was brought in only as a part-timer and it was expected that the part-time spinners will play a big part filling in for the fifth bowler, but his clever change of pace wasn’t easy to get away and he ended up bowling his full quota of ten overs and in the meantime, picked up his first wicket in ODIs and a big one too in Adam Gilchrist.

Gilchrist went onto make 61 in 81 balls with the help of three boundaries and a six while Michael Clarke top scored an unbeaten 77 in 86 balls with two fours
and a six.

SCOREBOARD

Australia

A Gilchrist lbw b Kapugedera 61

M Hayden c Jayawardene b Amerasinghe 42

R Ponting c Jayawardene b Vaas 9

M Clarke not out 77

A Symonds c Kapugedera 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

Overs: 50

Did not bat: Nathan Bracken, Brad Hogg, Mitchell Johnson.

Fall of wickets: 1-65, 2-88, 3-139, 4-160, 5-190, 6-253.

Bowling: Chaminda Vaas 10-1-34-2, Lasith Malinga 10-0-55-1 (5w), Ishara Amarasinghe 10-0-66-2 (1w), Muttiah Muralitharan 10-0-42-0, Chamara Kapugedera 10-0-54-1.

Sri Lanka

U Tharanga c Gilchrist b Bracken 10

S Jayasuriya b Lee 7

K Sangakkara lbw b 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 (Ponting) 18

L Malinga run out (Symonds) 2

M Muralitharan c Symonds b Bracken 11

Ishara Amerasinghe not out 0

Extras (3lb,4w,1nb) 8

Total (all out) 125

Overs: 31.3

Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-18, 3-57, 4-74, 5-81, 6-84, 7-93, 8-105,

9-114, 10-125

Bowling: Brett Lee 7-1-34-1 (1nb,1w), Nathan Bracken 8.3-0-47-5 (1w), Mitchell Johnson 5-3-9-1 (1w), James Hopes 5-0-15-0, Brad Hogg

6-1-17-1 (1w)

Umpires: Tony Hill, New Zealand, and Simon Taufel, Australia.

TV Umpire: Peter Parker, Australia. Match referee: Jeff Crowe,

New Zealand.

Man of the match: Nathan Bracken.

Result: Australia won by 128 runs.


Courtesy - The Island