Australia openers David Warner‘s and Aaron Finch’s unbeaten half-centuries help the visitors to a dominating ten-wicket win over the hosts.
Australia go 1-0 up in the three-match T20I series without hardly breaking a sweat. A commanding performance from the Aussies, the bowlers did the job earlier, and it was superbly followed by the openers to win by ten wickets. The win was inevitable for the visitors even when the rain stopped the play as they were very close to the finishing line.
By the end of the Powerplay, Sri Lanka were a healthy 59 for 0. Halfway through their innings, they’d got to 87 for 1. Sri Lanka finished on 128/10 after 20 overs. Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc led the Australian bowling attack to do the damage.
Australia’s brilliant fielding fueled Sri Lanka’s batting collapse. Josh Hazlewood has been the pick of the bowlers in this innings with four wickets. Mitchell Starc took three wickets in 4 overs by giving away just 26 runs.
Hazlewood‘s emergence as one of the game’s premier T20 bowlers was once again on display, taking 4-16 as he silenced a packed house at the R.Premadasa Stadium as Sri Lanka crumbled in a major anti-climax to Tuesday evening’s highly-anticipated clash.
David Warner, playing in his first T20 International since last year’s World Cup, where he was player-of-the-tournament, was dominant. At the same time, Aaron Finch (61 not out) profited from an early review after being given out before scoring.
The Australia captain hit four sixes, including one jaw-dropping blow off Dushmantha Chameera over long-off, while Warner scored even faster as he found the fence nine times.
Following a lengthy second-innings rain delay, the visitors reached the modest victory target of 128 with six overs to spare.
Aaron Finch, the skipper of Australia, said that they have had a really similar group for a while, everyone understands their role, and it’s only about giving them confidence.
Mentioned that Josh Hazlewood bowled at a consistent length, Sri Lanka played very well in the powerplay, but they were able to control the middle overs. Added that he feels nice getting some runs and putting on a partnership with David Warner. Concluded by saying that it was a good performance overall.
Josh Hazlewood said it was not the ideal condition to bowl as it was hot and sweaty, but they bowled well as a unit, and the results showed. Mentioned that the new ball flew off the bat initially, but they pulled things back and back of a length did work in their favour. He said that he has been working hard on his T20 game, playing a lot of it.
