Sri Lanka v Australia, 2nd T20I: Five Talking Points

The second Sri Lanka v Australia T20 international at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo saw yet another spectacle from Glenn Maxwell who once again flayed the ball to all parts, thereby taking the Lankan bowlers apart. The occasion, however, saw a massive outpouring of emotion as Tillakaratne Dilshan took to the ground for perhaps the last time in a Sri Lankan jersey. In spite of this, the Lankans did not do justice to the 30,000 odd spectators who had thronged to the Premadasa as they were completely blown away by the Aussie pace battery. While there were a plethora of talking points from the recently concluded encounter, we take a quick look at five of the most prominent talking points.

1. Tillakaratne Dilshan gets an emotional farewell

With this being Tillakaratne’s swansong, it was clear that this was going to be an emotional outing as far as Dilshan was concerned. Almost 30,000 spectators thronged to the R Premadasa Stadium to get a glimpse of their superstar who was going to hang up his boots in the next few hours. However, Dilshan failed to live up to the hype as he was dismissed after managing just the one run.

2. Dhananjaya de Silva fights a lonely battle

Dhanajaya de Silva is perhaps the player who is currently being groomed by the Sri Lankan cricket coaching staff to step into the shoes of Dilshan. The former has taken to his new role quite nicely by smashing a few important runs for the Lankans and being only one of the two players on the day to get past the single digit mark. He received little or no support from the other end as he smashed 62 runs off just 50 deliveries, smashing five boundaries as he did. His efforts ensured that the Lankans were spared of their blushes and reach a score in excess of 100 runs.

3. Aussie bowlers keep things tight

The Aussie bowlers managed to keep it tight right till the very end as they proved to be supremely frugal in their bowling departments. Apart from Glenn Maxwell who conceded 16 runs in an over, the rest of the bowlers had a much better and stiffer way of keeping the scoring rate as low as possible. James Faulkner and Adam Zampa picked three wickets apiece with John Hastings also impressing with two wickets to his name.

4. Glenn Maxwell at it once again

Similar to the first T20 international at Pallekele, Glenn Maxwell made his way out to open the innings with skipper David Warner. Once again, similar to his first match efforts, Maxwell began to smash the bowlers to different parts of the ground. At that juncture in the encounter, it seemed as though the total compiled by the Lankans looked extremely frugal. Needless to say, Maxwell smashed 66 runs off just 29 deliveries including 7 boundaries and 4 sixes.

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5. Wickets fall in a hurry but Australians crawl to victory

Following the wicket of Glenn Maxwell, the Aussies suddenly began to lose wickets in a hurry. With just 30 odd runs to win, little did anyone anticipate that the Aussies would require six wickets to get there. The spinners came into the picture, including Dilshan who picked two wickets in the two overs that he bowled. Travis Head signed off with a six to conclude the tour.