Australia took a one-nothing lead in the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka after defeating the hosts by three wickets in yesterday’s opening encounter at Colombo’s R Premadasa Stadium.
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Chasing 228 for victory, Australia reached the target with three wickets in hand in the 47th over despite some anxious moments.
Australian captain Steve Smith and his fellow batsman must somehow put their recent demons aside against a squad packed with tweakers, including Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dilruwan Perera, Dinesh Chandimal and highly regarded left-armed wrist spinner Lakshan Sandakan.
Australia’s James Faulkner, center, and Mitchell Starc complete a run to defeat Sri Lanka by three wickets during their first one day global cricket match in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, Aug. 21.
Starc (3-32), as always, was a central figure taking three top order wickets for 32 off his ten overs, including bowling opener Kusal Perera with the fifth ball of the match.
And while Starc believes it was that World Cup campaign in which he took 22 wickets at an average of barely runs each where the pieces all fell snugly into place, it was the months of toil he undertook with Australia’s then bowling coach Craig McDermott that carried him to that point.
Smith and Bailey added 62 for the fourth wicket before Smith was caught at short leg, as Australia’s run chase started to wobble.
Australia are now on a tour of Sri Lanka where they have already completed the Test series comprising of three encounters and the 5-match ODI series is on the course that would be followed by a T20I series consisting of two clashes. They will be a different proposition all together and in David Warner, Mitchell Starc, Aaron Finch and skipper Smith have players who have the necessary experience and are match-winners.
“The wickets that we trained on were probably not even similar to be fair”, he said.
And to get a handle on how much the ball is swinging, how far it’s moving off the pitch, how quickly it’s thudding into your bat. “I think the wicket played as it was right throughout, it only got worse”.
Travis Head was next to fall to Dilruwan Perera with six runs still required but Faulkner (five) and Starc (five) saw Australia over the line with 19 balls to spare to go 1-0 up in this five-match series. This news story is related to Latest/144189-Australias-Starc-sets-ODI-wicket-record/ – breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne.
The home side built a strong platform on a dry and slow wicket, moving to 2-124 at over four runs an over before all-rounder James Faulkner (4-38) struck two crucial blows in quick succession.
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Watch Mathews himself preview the five-match ODI series in the video below.
