Australia vs Sri Lanks 5th ODI: Australia wins by four wickets, lose series by 3-2
Australia defeated the Sri Lankan team while chasing a low target of 161 runs with four wickets and 10.3 overs to spare. Chamika Karunaratne was declared the man of the match for his daring half-century, whereas Kusal Mendis became the Player of the series as Sri Lanka won the series by 3-2
SL vs AUS: Australia chased down a 161-run target against Sri Lanka with 63 balls to spareChamika Karunaratne 75 went in vain as visitors restricted Lankans to 160
Sri Lanka's decision to bat first after winning the toss backfired as their batting line-up completely collapsed against the Australian bowling attack. Only Kusal Mendis (26) managed to put up some resistance amongst the top and middle-order batting line-up. For that, too, he took 40 balls and boasted a meager strike rate of 65.
Most of the Lankan batters even struggled to cross the double-digit mark. The loss of wickets and slow innings of the batters meant a shallow run rate for the hosts. While the Sri Lankan team had already won the ODI series, the Australian bowling attack proved their caliber in the final ODI match. Josh Hazlewood and Matthew Kuhnemann even bowl three maiden overs each, which is a massive achievement for any bowler in an ODI match.
While much was not expected out of the Sri Lankan lower-order batting line-up, Chamika Karunaratne turned out to be the outlier scoring the highest individual total out of the Lankan innings. Had it not been for him and his 75 runs, the hosts' total would have struggled to cross the triple-digit mark. The Sri Lankan team couldn't even play the entire 50 overs and was dismissed on a surprisingly low score of 160 runs in 43.1 overs. Another fantastic and impressive thing was that the Australian bowlers gave away just three runs in extras.
Alex Carey and Cameron Green to the rescue
The Aussies, while chasing, couldn't build steady partnerships in the beginning. They lost their first three wickets in just eight runs and got reduced to 50/4 in the 15th over. Visitors got their first partnership of 31 runs at the fourth wicket between Mitchell Marsh (24) and Marnus Labuschagne. Alex Carey added a 51-run stand with Marnus Labuschagne (31). While Labuschagne got dismissed by Dunith Wellalage, Alex Carey scored an unbeaten 45 with Cameron Green's unbeaten 25 to seal the victory.
Dunith Wellalage led the Sri Lankan bowling attack with three wickets, whereas Chamika Karunaratne was the most uneconomical one with an economy of 6.33. He also wasn't able to take a single wicket. Maheesh Theekshana was the most economical one with a super low economy rate of just 2.6 runs per over alongside scalping a couple of wickets.
Sri Lanka's skipper Dasun Shanaka said, "It (today's loss) is disappointing, but we need to keep pushing the boundaries, glad about the way the guys performed in the series. We took the momentum from the last T20 game, which set the tone. I think we could have won the first ODI as well. Our batters kept performing and our bowlers also delivered. Everyone took the responsibility, good to see Mendis back in form. Also the other players, it's a team effort. We need to keep playing like this. The crowd has been amazing, it has been a full house, they were always behind us. They kept believing in us and we need to deliver more in the future. Would like to thank the cricket boards and the ground staff as well."
While Australia had already lost the series, they proved in the last ODI that they are a well-oiled machine of a team capable of winning matches by huge margins. They will lock horns for the two-match Test series at Galle, commencing on 29th June 2022.