Twitter Reactions: Sri Lanka win a close thriller to continue excellent T20I record

They lost all the matches in the Test and the ODI series in South Africa but one shining ray was their 2-1 win in the T20I series. Sri Lanka minus Angelo Mathews seems a pretty mediocre unit but Upul Tharanga and his men carried the confidence of a series win in South Africa down under and overhauled a challenging total put ahead of them by the Aussies to take lead in the three-match T20I series.

The Lankan skipper won the toss and asked Aaron Finch’s men to bat first and set them a target – chasing has been something they have been comfortable with given the presence of some hard hitters in the lineup. Australia got off to a great start with 36-year-old Michael Klinger and Finch playing quick fire knocks. They batted together for over 10 overs and added 76 runs together before Klinger was dismissed for 38 by Lakshan Sandakan.

Finch departed in the next over from Asela Gunaratne for 43. Travis Head added 31 but it was a poor show thereafter Moises Henriques managed just 17, Ashton Turner turned up for 13 balls and scored 18. James Faulkner’s two boundaries in the end, took them to 168/6 in 20 overs. Lasith Malinga making his international comeback was on a hat-trick but couldn’t repeat his feat and ended his 4 overs with 2/29.

It was a tricky total but the Aussie bowlers needed to bowl really well to defend that given the hitting abilities the Lankan team possesses. Pat Cummins gave them an early blow dismissing the skipper Tharanga for a duck. Niroshan Dickwella and Dilshan Munaweera got them going with 30 and 44 were both scalped by the leggie Adam Zampa.

Gunaratne who scored a hundred in the last ODI against South Africa was up for it with the bat this time as well and struck seven boundaries in 37 balls to score 52. But his dismissal on the first ball of the 18th over with the score at 151 gave a scare as Turner sent back Milinda Siriwardana a ball later. Chamara Kapugedera and Seekkuge Prasanna showed great control over their nerves to take them over the line with 3 needed in the last two balls. Kapugedera hit the last ball from Andrew Tye for a boundary to take them over the line with 5 wickets in hand.

Here is how Twitter reacted during the close encounter: