ICC World Cup 2019: Match 20, Sri Lanka vs Australia, Review – Aaron Finch and Starc keep the spirited Islanders at bay

Just when the Lankan fans began to dream again, Australia burst the bubble of hope courtesy some outstanding hitting from Aaron Finch and another exhibition of ruthless fast bowling from Mitchell Starc. It wasn’t smooth sailing for the five-time champions, who haven’t lost a World Cup game to Sri Lanka since 1996 final, but they always were in full control.

David Warner continued to bat in an uncharacteristic way, spending a lot of time to settle in. Aaron Finch though was not holding back and made sure every half-tracker was punished. Finch made merry of the good batting conditions but for some reasons, Warner was batting at a strike rate of under 55. The southpaw’s struggle came to an end with Dhananjaya de Silva cleaning up his stumps.

The Aussie skipper nevertheless completed his half-century and was in a completely different zone. Usman Khawaja’s horrid run in the tournament continued as he was dismissed for just a 20-ball 10. But Australia’s innings saw an upsurge when Finch and Steve Smith came together and the duo made an absolute mockery of Sri Lanka’s bowling attack.

Smith, just the way he always does, swivelled around and made bowling a lot more difficult. Finch kept blasting his way out and completed another hundred in 2019. Their partnership went past the fifty-run mark and they were turning out to be a nightmare to deal with. Aaron Finch‘s exploits though came to an end right after his 150 and that brought Glenn Maxwell to the crease.

Maxwell finally found some form, scoring a lot of runs off Nuwan Pradeep and Lasith Malinga. Steve Smith missed out on a hundred but ensured the team got into a great position before he walked back. Despite some great fightback from Isuru Udana, Australia finished with 334 runs for the loss of seven wickets.

Middle order collapse once again ruins the Islanders’ day

Kusal Perera and Dimuth Karunaratne gave a fine start to the Asian side and the way Perera went after Starc in the first few overs made their intent clear. They didn’t make things any easy for the Australian new ball bowlers and another one in their target list was World Cup debutant Jason Behrendorff. Perera smashed home a brilliant half-century and their partnership accounted for 115 runs in just 93 balls.

Who else but Mitchell Starc was brought back to break this partnership and no prizes for guessing, did exactly what his captain wanted. He castled Perera’s stumps and the scoring rate began to come down after that. Karunaratne battled his way through alongside Thirimanne and Kusal Mendis after that and got close to scoring his first ODI hundred.

Kane Richardson broke the Lankan hearts dismissing Karunaratne on 97 and after that, it was the same old story. Their middle order collapsed horrendously, with Angelo Mathews failing to execute a pull shot, Thisara Perera trying to be too cool and Siriwardana finding his stumps getting rattled in typical Mitchell Starc way.

Sri Lanka eventually got bowled out for 247 runs, handing the Men in yellow their fourth victory of the tournament. This win took the Aussies to the top of the table temporarily with New Zealand one point behind and also having one extra game in hand.

Brief Scores

Australia: 334/7 in 50 overs (Aaron Finch 153, Steve Smith 73, Glenn Maxwell 46*; Isuru Udana 2/40)

Sri Lanka: 241 all out in 45.5 overs (Dimuth Karunaratne 97, Kusal Perera 53; Mitchell Starc 4/55)

Result: Australia won by 87 runs

Man of the match: Aaron Finch