After a disciplined bowling performance, fifties from Aaron Finch and Steven Smith helped Australia chase down a target of 228 runs in 46.5 overs to defeat Sri Lanka by three wickets in the first One-Day International in Colombo.
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There was another twist as the visiting side lost three more wickets, but bowling heroes Starc, on five, and Faulkner, also on five, remained unbeaten as Australia registered its highest ODI run chase in Sri Lanka.
While Smith remains at the helm of the ODI side, the squad will be bolstered by one-day specialists such as allrounders Aaron Finch and James Faulkner, along with young spinner Adam Zampa.
Debutant spinner Amila Aponso troubled Smith (58) and Finch.
The left-armer has been in magnificent form for the past couple of seasons.
Finch didn’t appear to edge the delivery but umpire Aleem Dar thought differently and raised his finger after requesting a video review to check for a possible bump ball.
Smith and George Bailey (39) shared a stand of 62 for the fourth wicket, before the Aussie captain was dismissed by a stunning close-range catch from substitute fielder Danushka Gunathilaka. Meanwhile, Tillakaratne Dilshan made his way back into the team after missing the England tour for his personal reasons.
The three match Test series gave us the Sri Lanka of old, with the batsman dominating and the spinners creating havoc.
Faulkner finished with 4-38 while Starc returned 3-32. “I think everything started to click and it all felt really good”.
“It was a pretty poor wicket”.
Cricket: Mitchell Starc has become the fastest person to take 100 ODI wickets, doing so in just 52 appearances.
“Just the skills that he has – swing, pace, left-arm, yorkers, he can bowl good bouncers”.
The Australian went on to dismantle the long standing record of 19-years which was previous held by Pakistan great off spinner Saqlain Mushtaq.
Two overs later, Starc became the fastest bowler to snare 100 ODI wickets when he removed Dhananjaya de Silva (2).
Man-of-the-match James Faulkner claimed his best global figures, taking 4-38 with the ball, including the crucial wickets of Kusal Mendis (67) and captain Angelo Mathews for a duck.
First, he enticed Kusal Mendis into top-edging a slow offcutter to Travis Head at midwicket, before tempting Angelo Mathews into a drive that was caught superbly by Head at point to send the Sri Lanka skipper back to the pavilion with a duck.
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Australia, who have now taken 1-0 lead in the series, will play their second ODI against the hosts at the same venue on Wednesday.
