ICC World Cup 2019: Match 20, Sri Lanka vs Australia – Best Memes from the Match

Australia have managed to defeat Sri Lanka to climb to the top of the table in the ongoing World Cup. The Island nation showed great fight and tried to take the game deep but the Aussie bowlers were too good in the end for them in the steep chase. Mitchell Starc ran through their line-up and returned with the figures of 4/55 as Sri Lanka fell short of the target by 87 runs.

Chasing a total of 335 runs, Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Perera got the team off to a brilliant start. They took on Starc, Pat Cummins and forced the Aussie skipper Aaron Finch to bring the second set of pacers quickly into the attack. Jason Behrendorff was at the receiving end here as the duo kept on scoring runs at a fair clip.

The openers added 115 runs for the first wickets in less than 16 overs to keep the team afloat, rather ahead in the chase. However, Starc drew the first blood by disturbing Kusal Perera’s middle stump. The run-scoring was controlled superbly then by the Australian bowlers. Lahiru Thirimanne also struggled his way through to 16 before getting out to Behrendorff.

Meanwhile, Karunaratne was playing a captain’s knock to keep his side in the hunt. He deserved to get to the three-figure mark but the southpaw was sent back by Kane Richardson for 97 and this is where Sri Lanka lost the fight in them. Soon Angelo Mathews was sent back and Starc stuck into their line-up dishing out yorkers at will.

Sri Lanka collapsed from being 186/2 and then 205/3 to get bowled out for 247 in the 46th over of the innings. After looking so good in the run-chase, they eventually lost the game by a big margin of 87 runs.

Finch stars with a century

Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to field first with an aim to extract something out of the pitch with the new ball. Even the Australia openers David Warner and Aaron Finch played out the tricky period only for the latter to launch an assault soon. Warner looked scratchy throughout his innings and was castled by the part-timer Dhananjaya de Silva. The same bowler trapped the out of form Usman Khawaja then to leave Australia struggling at 100/2 after 23 overs.

This is where Aaron Finch accelerated and then put on a stunning 173-run stand with Steve Smith. Finch played some outrageous strokes during his stay in the middle and some lacklustre bowling from the Lankans also helped. Fittingly, the Aussie captain got to his century. He got even more dangerous after crossing the milestone and went on to score 153 runs.

Australia were well and truly set to post a huge total on the board but they once again lost their way. Sri Lanka made a stunning comeback in the last five overs courtesy Isuru Udana and Lasith Malinga. It was only due to Glenn Maxwell’s unbeaten 46 off just 25 that they managed to reach 334 runs for the loss of seven wickets after 50 overs. Though Sri Lanka threatened for some time, the total was more than enough in the end.

Here are some of the best memes: