Allrounder Asela Gunaratne has blasted Sri Lanka to a stunning two-wicket T20 win over Australia in Geelong.
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Gunaratne took 12 off James Faulkner, then 22 off Moises Henriques, and the 14 that Sri Lanka then needed off the final over from Andrew Tye were completed when Gunaratne crunched the last ball over cover for four.
“Asela’s was an awesome innings”.
Australia have several top players unavailable because of the Indian Test tour.
But anyone who left early didn’t count on Asela Gunaratne, who made a stunning 84 not out from 46 balls after making 52 at the MCG on Friday night. “But when you’ve got a guy who’s in like that, it’s so hard to defend”.
“That was one hell of an innings”, Finch said. “I thought we had enough runs [173] on the wicket and the way that we bowled throughout the powerplay and middle overs was outstanding”. That was striking as good as you’ll see.
With rain delaying proceedings lightly, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to field first. Take nothing away from them.
“We’ve got a couple of days to get it right again”, he said. “The series is gone, hopefully we can salvage something in Adelaide”.
The hosts were beaten by five wickets in the opening match of the series at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.
The series finale, which will be the last worldwide match of the Australian season, will be played at the Adelaide Oval on Wednesday (February 22).
After being reduced to 40 for five, Chamara Kapugedera and Asela Gunaratne shared a 52 run stand for the sixth wicket.
Gunaratne (1-26) ended Dunk’s 14-ball onslaught when he castled him in the seventh over and with Michael Klinger (43) struggling to get going, Australia managed only 20 runs in the next four overs.
The Australians had put up a good score of 168. He finished with four for 31 from four overs.
Kapugedara held on to an end while Seekkuge Prasanna failed to gain momentum and hit the winning boundary when the game was tied in the last ball of the innings. Even Henriques’ 56 not out from 37 balls was somewhat scratchy, given he was dropped in the deep by Kapugedera on 19.
But Milinda Siriwardana took a superb diving catch at long-off to dismiss Ashton Turner for seven.
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Leg-spinner Adam Zampa claimed the big wicket of free-scoring opener Niroshan Dickwella for 30 off 25 balls.
