Sri Lanka vs Australia 2nd ODI: Bowlers Help Sri Lanka Stun Australia And Level Series At 1-1

Though after the hosts batted, it looked as if Australia would secure the victory easily; however, it turned out that their adversary managed to beat them by a narrow margin of 26 notches. Chamika Karunaratne was declared the man of the match for his all-rounding performance as he scalped three wickets and contributed 18 runs while batting.

Pat Cummins' best bowling show to take a four-fer

While Australia won the toss and decided to bowl, Sri Lanka didn't seem to make the most of the opportunity to bat first as they ended up putting up a total of just 220 runs in 47.4 overs. Openers failed to put an anchoring start to the inning; however, Kusal Mendis and Dhananjaya de Silva stitched a 61-run partnership off 68 balls. Kusal Mendis emerged as the Sri Lankan top-scorer as he contributed 36 notches. Only his two other teammates managed to cross the 30-run mark. They were Dhananjaya de Silva (34) and skipper Dasun Shanaka (34). The lethal bowling by Pat Cummins ensured that the Lankans wouldn't be able to put up a huge total for the visitors to chase. He sent four Sri Lankan batters to the pavilion while maintaining an excellent economy rate of 4.03. His other teammates, Matthew Kuhnemann and Glenn Maxwell, each took a couple of wickets.

Spinner ruled the home pitch of Pallekele.

As for the Australian innings, it seemed as if David Warner and Aaron Finch would make an excellent partnership as openers, but their partnership ended with Aaron Finch getting dismissed at the score of 14 by Dhananjaya de Silva. Chamika Karunaratne managed to send three batters back to the pavilion, which was the highest amongst Sri Lankan bowlers. Still, he was also the most uneconomical, with an economy rate of 6.71. His other teammates, Dushmantha Chameera, Dhananjaya de Silva and Dunith Wellalage, each took a couple of wickets as the visitors saw the final collapse of 5 for 19. Australia got bundled out for 189 while chasing the target of 216 from 43 overs owing to the D/L method. David Warner (37), Glenn Maxwell (30) and Steven Smith (28) were the top scorers on the Australian side. 

On losing, Aaron Finch said, "We were poor in the field. The guys got starts and didn't convert, and that was the difference. It was unfortunate. This isn't the most perfect outfield, but we could have attacked the ball more. Chasing in these conditions where the wicket is slow and spinning is something we need to keep improving on. It is a part of the game we could be better at, but today's game showed we were off it. We can't do much about the injuries, but lucky that the A team is in Hambantota and we could have a replacement. Thanks to the crowd for coming in and supporting both teams."

While being mediocre in their batting game, the Sri Lankans managed to counter that by ensuring that no Australian batter could get settled on the pitch and, subsequently, also playing excellent innings. Aussies could have had their batting line-up perform better. Had that been the case, they would have secured an easy victory. Regardless, it will be interesting to see whether they would be able to settle their scorers with the hosts in the upcoming ODI of the 5-match series.

Australia needs to work on its batting line-up and make sure that their batters focus on building excellent partnerships in the upcoming match if they want to ensure their victory in that and the entire ODI series. They will lock horns next in Colombo on 19th June 2022 for the third ODI.