ICC World Cup 2019: Match 20, Sri Lanka vs Australia – Finch’s record knock, captains domination and more stats

Australia’s 87-run win against Sri Lanka might not show the whole picture of how well the Lankans were cruising in the game at a stage. Skipper Aaron Finch’s 132-ball 153 helped the Aussies to reach 300 by end of 45th over. However, some good death bowling limited the defending champions to 334/7.

Kusal Perera and Dimuth Karunaratne added 115 for the first wicket in only 15.3 overs. However, the skipper Karunaratne fell three runs short of a century that pulled a collapse. From 186/2 in 32 overs, the Lankans stumbled to 222/7 in the space of 37 deliveries and eventually got bowled out for 247.

All the statistical highlights from Australia’s big defeat against Sri Lanka at The Oval:

Australia extends their streak:

6 – This was Australia’s 6th victory in the seven World Cup matches against Sri Lanka since losing the 1996 CWC final in Lahore. The 2011 edition game between these two sides got washed out while the Aussies won twice in 2003 and 2007 tournaments over the Lankans and also once in 2015.

A record knock from Finch:

153 – Aaron Finch became the first Australian captain to score 150+ and the 3rd highest individual score by an Australian player in the World Cup. The previous highest individual score by an Australian skipper was 140* by Ricky Ponting in the 2003 CWC final against India.

153 – Finch’s 153-run knock is the highest individual ODI score by an Australian in England. Finch went past Shane Watson’s 143 which was scored against England in the 2013 Southampton ODI.

1 – Finch became the first Australian skipper to score two 150+ scores in ODI cricket. He scored an unbeaten 153 against Pakistan during the ODI series hosted by UAE this year.

A game of captains:

250 – Aaron Finch (153) and Dimuth Karunaratne (97) collectively added 250 runs in this game; the most by captains in a World Cup match. They surpassed the 223 runs aggregated by Brendan Taylor (138) and MS Dhoni (85*) in the game between Zimbabwe and India in 2015.

Had Karunaratne scored three more runs, this game could have been the first ever World Cup game with both captains scoring a hundred. The 250 runs collectively scored by Finch and Dimuth are the 4th most by captains in an ODI game.

Starc among wickets again:

4 – The 4-wicket haul by Mitchell Starc in this game is his 4th in the World Cup; the joint-most by an Australian player in this competition. Shane Warne also had four 4-wicket hauls in the World Cup for the Aussies.

Finch levels with Kohli:

2 – Aaron Finch became only the 2nd player to score two 150+ scores as captain in a calendar year. Finch scored exactly 153* against Pakistan while leading the Aussies earlier this year. Virat Kohli was the first player to achieve this feat which he accomplished in 2018.

Malinga @ 100:

100 – The wicket of Steve Smith in this game was the 100th bowled wicket for Lasith Malinga in this ODI format. Malinga is only the 5th bowler to bag 100 bowled ODI wickets and all the five are from Asia only. Wasim Akram leads the list with 176 bowled wickets out of his career tally of 502.

A big stand before the collapse:

115 – Kusal Perera and Dimuth Karunaratne’s 115-run stand is only the 4th time century stand for the first wicket in an unsuccessful CWC chase. AB de Villiers and Graeme Smith added 160 against also Australia in the 2007 league stage game.

Geoffrey Boycott and J Brearley had a 129-run stand before a collapse in the 1979 final against the Windies while Zimbabwe pair of R Chakabva and Brendan Taylor put on 116 in 2011 against Sri Lanka.

A forgettable game for Pradeep:

88 – The 88 runs conceded by Nuwan Pradeep in his ten overs are the 2nd most by any Sri Lankan in a World Cup game. Ashanta de Mel had figures of 1/97 from his ten overs in the 1987 CWC game against the Windies.

0/88 – Pradeep’s 0/88 is the 2nd most expensive wicketless bowling figures in a World Cup game. Namibia’s Rudi van Vuuren went for 0/92 in his ten overs also against Australia in 2003.