Aussies dish out champion stuff again

COLOMBO, AUG 26: In the afternoon, the Sri Lankans fielded like possessed men who had a magnetic attraction for the ball. But once the ba...

COLOMBO, AUG 26: In the afternoon, the Sri Lankans fielded like possessed men who had a magnetic attraction for the ball. But once the bat was in their hands under the floodlights, they reacted as if the white ball was some kind of a missile needed to be avoided. This huge gap between their afternoon’s and evening’s performances saw an early end to their hopes and the Australians kept their billing, as the word’s best side, intact. That the Sri Lankan out-cricket has improved beyond recognition is no longer debatable. Backing their spinners on a wicket where the ball was turning, their players fought brilliantly to contain Australia to a score which in the beginning of their innings was appearing they would make in the 40th over itself.

It was a match crucial to Indian fortunes in the tournament, as a win for Sri Lanka here would have made India’s chances of making the final bleak, not that it has made their task easy either. But now, even if they lose to Australia, they need to beat Sri Lanka and hope toqualify on better net run-rate.

If Mutthaih Muralitharan’s skills in the field was the highlight of the afternoon’s play, Ricky Ponting’s spectacular dive in the gully to get rid of Sanath Jayasuriya was the talking point of the evening. The last time he made a similar exhibition of his athletic skills resulted in the last Pakistan wicket to fall in the World Cup final. Tonight, the stage may not have been as big but it did result in an early end of Jayasuriya who appeared in good form. The rest of the story followed the way Australia would have wanted it to unfold. Steve Waugh juggled with his bowlers effectively.

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It was an early, swift charge towards victory, despite debutant Chamara Silva’s productive stay at the crease which enthused the crowd and put some artificial excitement into the game late in the night. Mark Waugh’s soft touches and Adam Gilchrist’s weighty heaves in the opening overs were bad signs for the Lankans. The Australian charge spluttered a lot once the spinners wereintroduced.

Mahela Jayawardena’s turn resulted in mistimed scoop by Gilchrist. Muralitharan ran backwards from mid-off, somersaulted once but never let the ball out of his grasp. Muralitharan was to better this effort much later — by leaping in the air at long-off to take Andrew Symonds’ massive heave.

SCOREBOARD

AUSTRALIA

A Gilchrist c Murali b Jayawardena 38
M Waugh c Seram b Chandana 84
R Ponting c Saram b Muralitharan 14
D Lehmann b Chandana 5
S Waugh c Kalu b Chandana 12
M Bevan b Muralitharan 23
D Martyn b Muralitharan 17
A Symonds c Murali b Arnold 14
S Warne run out (Arnold) 15
A Dale not out 4
G McGrath not out 2
Extras (b2, lb3, w4, nb4): 13
Total (for 9 wickets, in 50 overs): 241
Fall of wickets: 1-83 (Gilchrist, 15 overs), 2-122 (Ponting, 24.1), 3-131 (Lehmann, 25.2), 4-160 (Steve Waugh, 31.3), 5-167 (Mark Waugh, 33.1), 6-200 (Martyn, 40.5), 7-211 (Bevan, 43), 8-231 (Warne 48.1), 9-235 (Symonds, 48.3)
Bowling: Vaas6-0-32-0, Perera 4-0-31-0, Arnold 8-0-34-1, Jayawardena 4-0-16-1, Chandana 10-0-35-3, Muralitharan 10-0-50-3, Jayasuria 8-0-38-0

SRI LANKA

S Jayasuria c Ponting b McGrath 10
M Atapattu run out (Martyn) 14
R. Arnold run out (Ponting) 41
M Jayawardena c Gilchrist b McGrath 0
Indika de Saram b Dale 1
C Silva st Gilchrist b Warne 55
R Kaluwitharana r o (S Waugh) 10
C Vaas b Martyn 23
U Chandana c Symonds b Steve 35
S Perera st Gilchrist b Warne 6
M Muralitharan not out 0
Extras (lb5, w11, nb3) 19
Total (all out in 47.1 overs) 214
Fall of wickets: 1-15 (Jayasuria, 4.1 overs), 2-45 (Atapattu, 11.2 overs), 3-45 (Jayawardena, 12.1 overs), 4-48 (Indika de Seram,13.3 overs), 5-87 (Arnold, 25.1 overs), 6-114 (Kaluwitharana, 30.5), 7-157 (Vaas, 39.2), 8-197 (Silva, 44.2 overs), 9-214 (S. Perera, 47 overs)
Bowling: G McGrath 10-0-52-2, A Dale 10-2-27-1, A Symonds 5-0-22-0, D Martyn 10-0-30-1, Steve Warne 9-0-52-2, S Waugh 3.1-0-26-1.