It's only Twenty20 but it's again nice to see Australia struggling so badly against Sri Lanka in today's match in Perth. The match wasn't really a contest, although Brad Haddin (who from what I can tell most Australian's don't want in the Ashes side because they rate the very average Tim Paine as better) and Steve Smith did their best to make it one with a partnership of 66 after Australia slumped to 43-5. They crawled up to 133-8 off their Twenty20 and when David Hussey talked to the commentators during Australia's fielding stint he said they thought they were about 40 short.It's difficult to say how many they would have needed because Sangakkara made sure of the win by batting very sensibly after the second wicket fell on 42 (it pitched outside leg and wasn't out, but there was no UDRS). He even played out a maiden in the 16th over he was so determined to ensure he was there at the end...you got the feeling they could have chased 133 in 12 overs if they'd needed to, rather than taking 16.3 in the end.
It'll be interesting to see how the two teams perform in the three ODIs coming up but on today's form Sri Lanka looked formidable, as Michael Clarke admitted.
And it appears Clarke was booed...that can't be good.
ReplyDeleteThe way the Sri Lankans finished looks ominous for the Australians. I quite like the variety in the Sri Lankan bowling attack.
ReplyDeleteBut this Australian team did look very average without Ponting, M Hussey, Bollinger and Johnson.