AUS v SL 3rd T20I Review: Australia save face Sri Lanka take the series

Sri Lanka’s chasing magic didn’t quite work out in the third and final T20I of the tour. Asela Gunaratne the star of the last two wins blinked today and the Lankan lineup fell apart against an upright Australian bowling lineup. Having won the third straight toss Upul Tharanga once again wanted Aaron Finch and his men to bat first. Australia were prepared for it this time.

Finch survived a chance in the very first over as Munaweera at short mid-wicket dropped a sitter off the bowling of Lasith Malinga. Michael Klinger was lucky as well to not edge the last ball of the over. Malinga started the T20I with a maiden. Having felt some pressure in the opening over both Finch and Klinger wanted to break free and Nuwan Kulasekara was the target. The Aussie skipper hit the first legal delivery from the over for a six and made their intentions pretty clear. Klinger had his turn and hit a four as well and the over fetched 14 runs.

Sanjaya in the next was hit for a couple of boundaries as well and same was the case in Kulasekara’s second. By the time Tharanga brought in Seekkuge Prasanna the batsmen had their eye pretty set and the 5th over yielded 18 runs. They had raced to 53 in just 5 overs; Sri Lanka desperately needed a breakthrough or a total in sequence with 230 was on the cards. He brought back Malinga to bowl the last power play over – another couple of silent overs and by the 9th over one could sense the pressure building on the Aussies to accelerate.

That presented an opportunity and Prasanna had Finch out caught at the long-off fence as he attempted to go big. He departed after scoring 53 from 32 balls (5 x 4s, 3 x 6s). Klinger and the next man Ben Dunk then had a short but effective partnership. The duo managed to keep the run rate over 9. Shanaka struck on the last ball of the 14th over and Dunk was on his way.

Also check out- Twitter Reactions: Australia finish the T20I series with a victory

Klinger then got to his half century and Travis Head the next man in almost ill-treated the best T20I bowler hitting Malinga for two sixes and a four in an over that added 20 runs to the Aussie total. Malinga was back to get his man and dismissed Head on the 2nd ball of the 19th over and Klinger was run out on the next. On the last ball, he had Ashton Turner caught by Kapugedera to end his four overs with 2/35.

The last over from Shanaka was tight as well and cost just 7 runs along with the wicket of James Faulkner. The target for Sri Lanka to achieve a whitewash was 188.

They were without their regular opener Niroshan Dickwella in this game who was suspended – Dilshan Munaweera replacing him opened the batting with Tharanga. Sri Lankans had a decent start to the chase as the pair added 41 runs in less than 4 overs but once Faulkner removed Tharanga wickets started to tumble and the safe gates of the castle were shattered.

A flurry of wickets followed – Jhye Richardson had Mendis for 14 when the Sri Lanka scoreboard read 68, the third wicket Munaweera walked back at 69, their superhero from the previous wins Gunaratne was castled by leggie Adam Zampa on 76. All this in less than ten overs and the chase was stalled. Zampa then had the better of Kapugedera and Dasun Shanaka as well while the score was still under 100. All this while they somehow managed to maintain the run rate and had someone taken the initiative to bat sensibly the chase was still pretty much on.

The last four wickets fell in a span of 26 runs and the game was over earlier than expected. All Sri Lanka could bat for was 18 overs for their 146 runs and lost the match by a huge 41 runs margin. This would certainly disappoint them but winning the series 2-1 down under isn’t a bad scoreline either.

Brief Scores:

Australia: 187/6 in 20 overs (Michael Klinger 62; Dasun Shanaka 2/27)

Sri Lanka: 146/10 in 18 overs (Dilshan Munaweera 37; Adam Zampa 3/25)