What a brilliant comeback Sri Lanka have made! Despite losing the first two matches in the series against mighty Australia, Sri Lanka have become successful in defending the series at home. After losing the first two games, the Lankans have won the next three consecutive matches to win the series. They defeated the Aussies yesterday by four runs to seal the series at their home stadium.
Match Review
Sri Lanka, the home team, welcomed Australia at the Premadasa Stadium in the 4th ODI of the series. Aussie skipper Aaron Finch won the toss in this match and decided to bowl first. So, Sri Lanka started the batting innings with the two openers, Niroshan Dicwella and Pathum Nissanka.
But, Australia had a great start as they picked up an early wicket. Spinner Glenn Maxwell picked up the wicket of Niroshan Dickwella in the second over. Furthermore, the home team lost two more wickets in a short time. Kusal Mendis departed the pitch in the 7th over, while Pathum Nissanka lost the wicket in the 10th over.
However, Sri Lanka had a great partnership on the fifth wicket. De Silva and Charith Asalanka tackled the initial disaster by making a hundred-run partnership. Asalanka got the century, but De Silva wasn’t lucky enough to do so. Before losing the wickets, Asalanka scored 110, and Silva scored 60 runs for the team. Relying on these runs, Sri Lanka scored 258 for 10 wickets.
Chasing the target, Australia started their innings a bit slowly. But they lost a very early wicket as the skipper had to go back to the pitch without scoring any runs. Then, David Warner tried to build a partnership with Mitchel Marsh. They added 63 runs together on the scoreboard. But due to the attack of the Lankan bowlers, Australia lost another wicket. Marsh lost the wicket after scoring 26 runs.
However, David Warner fought very hard to win the match. Unfortunately, the remaining batters couldn’t contribute much. David Warner was unfortunate to miss the century just for one run. He lost the wicket to De Silva in 99 runs. After that, the remaining batsmen of Australia couldn’t score enough to win the match. They became all out in 254 runs. As a result, Sri Lanka won the match and seal the series.