March 7, 2012 /
Posted in Australia, Sri Lanka
| Sri Lanka have a habit of losing finals in recent times. They lost the World T20 final, Asia Cup final, World Cup final and now the CB series final. There is no time to rest for Sri Lanka or Australia now as both sides have a series coming up. Australia go to West Indies while Sri Lanka travel to Bangladesh for the Asia Cup. We hope you have enjoyed following this series with us. Thank you and goodbye. |
| He also tweets about another interesting stat: ‘Australia’s 35th tournament win in ODIs, incl 2 shared. Their first since winning the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa in October 2009!’ |
| Mohandas Menon has some interesting statistical tweets here: ‘Australia’s 19th tri series title at home. Their first since winning the VB series in Feb 2006, which was also against Sri Lanka!’ |
| Clarke: ‘ Much better team without me I reckon. What a performance with the ball. I think we weren’t very good with how we executed our bowling until now but I think today we did very well with the ball. I think all the games went down to the wire and I reckon a few of the guys will have grey hair. My injury is getting better. Watson has done a great job while leading the side in my absence. Forrest made the most of his opportunity and scored a century, Nathan Lyon made use of his opportunity as well. I think it just shows the strength of the Australian first class and domestic system.’ |
| Mahela: ‘Initially if we were given 231 we would have taken it. I thought we played very well at the start. Unfortunately we didnt get too many partnerships going and it was just one of those days where we couldn’t bat well enough. I am very proud of the boys, they showed a lot of character. Even when the chips were down and there were injuries the boys put their hands up and stepped up to the challenge. I would like to just congratulate Australia for the win, they were the better team. We are just trying to build for the future, there is a good mix of young and old talent. We have a lot of positives to take back from this. I would like to thank the crowd for their support in the series.’ |
| Dilshan (Man of the Series): ‘I am disappointed tonight with how we finished the series. We have played this series very well and after coming back from South Africa and a difficult 6 months after the World Cup I think we have played very well. I think we lost few too many wickets early on and even I took the wrong option against Brett Lee. Australia bowled and fielded very well. I am enjoying how I am playing in all departments of the game. We have enjoyed the support from the crowd in Australia and I would like to thank all the Sri Lankans who supported us in this country.’ Dilshan scored 513 runs in the series. |
| Clint McKay (MoM): ‘I think my batting at the end of our innings was very important so that we could give ourselves something to bowl at. We thought 231 was enough and that if we bowled well we could defend it. it has been a long 18 months break for me and it is just nice to be back playing with the boys and the coaching staff has been great. When I was bowling the last over the only thing going through my mid was how Dhoni had hit me for a six last time around but thankfully that didn’t happen tonight.’ |
| One has to feel for Sri Lanka. They looked down and out at the beginning of the series and fought against all odds to earn themselves a place in the finals. Mahela’s captaincy and Sri Lanka’s team work was brilliant throughout the tournament but they were just not up to the quality of Australia. There are a lot of positives for Sri Lanka to take home from this series. Chandimal is certainly one of them. The batting was a problem for Sri Lanka before this series. Now they know they can look beyond Mahela, Sangakkara and Dilshan. Sri Lanka was plagued by a few injuries too towards the end of the tournament, however, that is part and parcel of a long tournament and at the end of the day they just weren’t good enough to come out on top. |
| Tharanga gave Sri Lanka some hope with a resilient 71 but eventually perished when it mattered the most and Australia snatched the opportunity to bowl out their opponents. Australia were thrilled with their performance and huddled in the middle of the pitch. Clarke looked like a very relieved man at the end of it. It has been a remarkable summer for Australia. First they dominated India in the Test series and then they went on to clinch the title in the ODI tri-series. |
| Australia have done it! They have finished up as the winners of this long drawn out series. The hosts were the better team throughout the tournament. The one thing they lacked was brilliance in the bowling department and they showed exactly how good their bowling is by defending 231 in the final encounter. Once Australia had made 231, it looked as though Sri Lanka would chase it down quite easily. The visitors got off to a good start but they lost wickets in quick succession and were pushed on the backfoot. Once they lost Mahela, Dilshan and Sangakkara it always looked like an uphill climb. |
Australia 231 (Wade 49, Warner 48, Herath 3-36, Maharoof 3-40) beat Sri Lanka 215 (Tharanga 71, McKay 5-28) by 16 runs
Australia v Sri Lanka, CB Series 3rd final, Adelaide McKay five-for delivers title
Unwavering spells from Clint McKay and the stand-in captain Shane Watson delivered the triangular series trophy to Australia in a fittingly tense third final against a doughty Sri Lanka at Adelaide Oval.
As the injured captain Michael Clarke watched intently from the boundary’s edge, Brett Lee and McKay nipped out Sri Lanka’s top four batsmen inside the first 10 overs, after the visitors had threatened to repeat the runaway start they had made in Tuesday’s second match.
Upul Tharanga and Lahiru Thirimanne threatened a recovery, but Watson was stinginess itself in the middle overs and McKay returned to help round up the Sri Lankans 16 runs short, the fitting final chapter of a compelling limited-overs tournament. The visitors’ contribution to the summer was underlined by Tillakaratne Dilshan’s selection as player of the series.
McKay’s figures were his best in international cricket, and followed a critical 28 at the tail-end of Australia’s innings. Watson will now take a weary but happy team to the West Indies for the ODI portion of the tour, having delivered the first triangular series contested in Australia since 2008.
Australia’s fielding and bowling effort was its best for some weeks, and needed to be after the batsmen had cobbled only 231 on a slowing pitch. Led adroitly in the field by Mahela Jayawardene, the visitors had not been perturbed by an opening stand of 75 at better than five runs an over between David Warner and Matthew Wade, and chipped away diligently at the hosts with a combination of spin and reverse swing. No Australian batsman passed 50 as they were bowled out in the final over.
Rangana Herath and Farveez Maharoof shared six wickets, while Nuwan Kulasekara also contributed to a tidy ensemble, of which only Lasith Malinga struggled to contain.
Herath bowled his best and most incisive spell of the tournament to return 3-36, helped by the use of the same pitch that had hosted Tuesday’s second final. As he had done in that match, Dilshan took the new ball and bowled his overs with thrift and direction.
Taking Sri Lanka’s lead, Watson opened up with the spin of Xavier Doherty at the other end to Lee, but the initial gambit did not work. Dilshan and Jayawardene capitalised on Doherty’s errors of line and length, collecting four boundaries from his first two overs as they swept to 0 for 33 from the first four overs.
Lee was also slipping in a final effort for the home summer, and he gained a critical break when Dilshan tried to work a lifting delivery to the leg side and managed only to loop a catch to cover from the front-edge of his bat. Kumar Sangakkara looked in truly sparkling touch upon his arrival, and had sprinted to 19 from eight balls when Lee coaxed an edge from his ninth – the high chance very well held by Watson.
McKay had replaced Doherty, and was soon settled into a precise spell that exploited the vagaries of a wearing surface to the maximum. Dinesh Chandimal was pinned lbw by a delivery that whirred in at middle stump, before Jayawardene was undone by another that seamed back just enough to beat his forward press and graze off stump.
Extremely unsteady at 4 for 53, Thirimanne and Tharanga fought to keep the chase afloat, but the caution forced by the loss of early wickets forced the required rate back up into awkward territory against the older ball. Watson, Nathan Lyon and Daniel Christian bowled intelligently without a wicket, as the match and series edged towards a nervous finish.
Thirimanne had added 60 with Tharanga and the Australians had grown tense by the time Watson found a way to eke out a wicket. Angling across Thirimanne, he coaxed a sliced drive that flew low into Warner’s safe hands at backward point. Kapugedera could manage only 7 before he edged another McKay delivery, the deflection held by a diving Wade.
Kulasekara threatened a repeat of his Gabba heroics, cracking two boundaries in a brief stay, before Lee followed the batsman’s retreat outside leg stump to cramp his room and prompt a catch to mid-on. Maharoof had been held back to No. 9, and he would provide a calming presence alongside Tharanga as the target was whittled down.
Watson had led his side well in testing circumstances, but he perhaps erred in his judgement to let Sri Lanka sneak closer. Having bowled five searching overs for only eight runs, Watson nonetheless preferred two overs of Doherty’s spin, costing 16 runs. By the time he recalled himself to the attack, Watson had only 30 runs to defend from the final five overs.
This all made Watson’s sixth over, the 46th of the innings, crucial. He responded in the best possible fashion, conceding only two runs and finding Tharanga’s outside edge. Next over McKay found a way through Herath, and 17 were still required when he yorked Malinga.
In the afternoon, Warner and Wade were conscious of the need for greater impetus at the top of the innings and played their shots early on, though taking more liberties against the pacemen than Dilshan’s part-time spin.
Warner cleared the boundary once and looked rather more fluent than he had during most of his century on Tuesday, but on 48 he edged a bouncing delivery from Maharoof to Kumar Sangakkara.
Wade had been struggling physically, vomiting at one point in what appeared an attack of gastro, but it was a surprise when a punchy Watson picked out Herath on the leg-side boundary off Dilshan’s bowling, the fielder clasping the sharp chance to his chest.
Michael Hussey’s stay was brief, Dilshan’s swift gather and throw from short third man finding him short of his ground after he had called Wade through for a single. Sri Lanka’s sense of momentum only grew when Wade’s dogged stay was ended by Herath, who coaxed an edge that Sangakkara held with a juggle.
Forrest could make only 3 before misreading Herath’s length and being bowled by a delivery that straightened just enough to beat his defensive blade and flick off stump. David Hussey was given lbw to a ball that would have passed over the top of the stumps, while Christian was undone by a Maharoof slower ball that he could only punch to mid off.
McKay and Lee did their best to swell the total in the closing overs, and their contributions were ultimately vital to a fighting victory.
Commonwealth Bank Series – 3rd final
Australia v Sri Lanka
Australia won by 16 runs
- ODI no. 3257 | 2011/12 season
- Played at Adelaide Oval
- 8 March 2012 – day/night (50-over match)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Australia innings (50 overs maximum) |
R |
M |
B |
4s |
6s |
SR |
 |
MS Wade† |
c †Sangakkara b Herath |
49 |
107 |
74 |
3 |
0 |
66.21 |
|
DA Warner |
c †Sangakkara b Maharoof |
48 |
57 |
45 |
5 |
1 |
106.66 |
|
SR Watson* |
c Herath b Dilshan |
19 |
32 |
18 |
1 |
1 |
105.55 |
|
MEK Hussey |
run out (Dilshan) |
1 |
8 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
33.33 |
|
DJ Hussey |
lbw b Maharoof |
19 |
43 |
29 |
1 |
0 |
65.51 |
|
PJ Forrest |
b Herath |
3 |
10 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
42.85 |
|
DT Christian |
c Jayawardene b Maharoof |
19 |
47 |
26 |
2 |
0 |
73.07 |
|
B Lee |
b Kulasekara |
32 |
75 |
54 |
2 |
0 |
59.25 |
|
CJ McKay |
c Maharoof b Herath |
28 |
34 |
32 |
3 |
1 |
87.50 |
|
XJ Doherty |
not out |
5 |
18 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
62.50 |
|
NM Lyon |
c sub (SMSM Senanayake) b Kulasekara |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Extras |
(b 2, lb 3, w 3) |
8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
(all out; 49.3 overs) |
231 |
(4.66 runs per over) |
| Fall of wickets 1-75 (Warner, 13.6 ov), 2-115 (Watson, 20.4 ov), 3-119 (MEK Hussey, 21.6 ov), 4-123 (Wade, 24.1 ov), 5-135 (Forrest, 26.4 ov), 6-151 (DJ Hussey, 31.6 ov), 7-177 (Christian, 37.3 ov), 8-217 (McKay, 45.5 ov), 9-231 (Lee, 49.2 ov), 10-231 (Lyon, 49.3 ov) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bowling |
O |
M |
R |
W |
Econ |
|
|
|
TM Dilshan |
10 |
Read More
