Cricket News : Sri Lanka Vs Australia 4th ODI Hosts won the nail-biter as Aussie loses the series

Sri Lanka defeated the Australian cricket team by a tiny margin of 4 runs and won the bilateral ODI series at home against Australia after three decades. This win has come as a celebration for Sri Lankans, particularly considering off-field issues that the country and its netizens are grappling with. 

Charith Asalanka scripted victory with his maiden ODI ton

On losing the loss, Sri Lanka took the field to bat first. However, they lost their first three wickets early for a total of just 34 runs. But then, thanks to Dhananjaya de Silva (60) and Charith Asalanka (110), they managed to put together a challenging total of 258 for the Australians. They stitched 101 run partnership off 100 balls. Besides these two Sri Lankan batsmen, none could manage to score more than 21 runs. All the Sri Lankan batters were bowled out by the Australian bowling attack with one over remaining in their innings. Though the hosts put up a decent total of 258, none of their batters played an explosive inning to throttle the total even higher.

The Australian bowlers were relatively economical except for Matthew Kuhnemann, the most expensive one giving seven runs in every over on average. He, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Marsh each took two wickets to their name and ensured that the Sri Lankans didn't cross the 300-run mark. The Australians needed 259 runs to win the match, tie the ODI series, and take it to the decider. They would have to face the Sri Lankan bowling attack and ensure that this was done within 50 overs to win the match.

Warner's finest ODI knock of 99 went in vain as Dasun Shanaka strikes on the final ball

While Australia lost their first wicket in the form of skipper Aaron Finch (0) on a score of just 3 in total, decent partnerships prevented a collapse of their innings after that. The Australians kept losing wickets regularly, with David Warner trying to anchor from one end. Opener David Warner missed his century by just a run as he got dismissed at 99 by Dhananjaya de Silva. While the middle-order batting line-up of the Aussies almost collapsed, Pat Cummins' 35 runs gave the Australian team a chance to take the match away from the Sri Lankans. However, with four runs needed off the last ball, Dasun Shanaka held his nerve right as he dismissed Matthew Kuhnemann on the final delivery of the match to seal a 4-run win.

Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka said, "After Chamika bowled that over we had a discussion about bowling a spinner but it was the right idea to challenge myself. I was very confident about the score. We were 34 for 3 at one stage and Charith and DDS put on a really good partnership unfortunately, we were not able to capitalise at the end. But I was very happy with the score we were able to put on. Not only for me, my teammates, Sri Lanka cricket, the whole country, this is much needed at the moment. I think this should be celebrated by the whole of Sri Lanka."

With this win, the hosts also won the 5-match ODI series. Hence, Australians lost their chance of keeping their hopes alive of winning the series. Though the fifth match will be a dead rubber match, it would be interesting to see if visitors will be able to make a comeback in the final ODI match. Though they lost this 4th ODI, they managed to keep their hopes alive until the last ball of their innings. The teams will lock horns for the final ODI on 24th June 2022 at Colombo.