Feb 29 2008
Sri Lanka defeated Australia by 13 runs!
There is one more stroke to World Champion’s pride today in Melbourne when Australian team couldn’t even touch an easy target of 222 runs put forth by Sri Lanka as all Aussies are out after making only 208 runs. Like this, Sri Lanka gave a magnificent defeat to Australia by 13 runs in the last match of CB series today on 29th February.
Australia was good at start and both the openers were playing carefully. Gillchrist made 83 runs from 50 balls. He was out by Kulkesra. Second opener, Hopes also played well and gave 28 runs but was out by Murlidharan. That time it seemed that Australia would defeat SriLanka easily. But there was turning point in the game. Sri Lankan bowlers snatched 5 wickets one by one.
Sri Lanka’s captain Jayewardene won the toss and decided to bat first. But his decision seemed wrong as Australian pacers didn’t allow them to play openly. First four wickets of Sri Lanka were soon down. Jayewardene’s 50 and Dilshan’s 62 run contribution led Sri Lanka to reach the goal of 222 runs. Other than these two players, C. Silva’s 35 run play was also said to be fine.
Although the match result is not going to effect on finals as Australia is already secured its position to fight with India in finals but this match was said as a trailor of Australian players to finals and they proved to be zero in it.
