Australia won the match with 7 wickets and 21 balls to spare. Hasaranga was taken to the cleaners, he gave away 53 runs of his 3 overs and was torn apart by the Aussies. Marcus Stoinis scored the fastest 50 for Australia and took the home side over the line.
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The hosts won the toss and opt to bowl. Sri Lanka were off to a horrible start as they lost their in-form opener Kusal Mendis in the second over. Though Pathum Nissanka and Dhananjaya de Silva struggled with the pace and bounce of Perth, they stitched 69 runs for the second wicket. The comeback man Ashton Agar got rid of de Silva (26 off 23) in the 12th over.Â
Once the partnership was broken, the innings lost momentum. While Nissanka (40 off 45) was the victim of a miscommunication, Bhanuka Rajapaksa (7 off 5), Dasun Shanaka (3 off 5), and Wanindu Hasaranga (1 off 4) played false shots. Charith Asalanka (38* off 25) played a few shots alongside Chamika Karunaratne (14* off 7) to propel the team to a respectable total in their allotted 20 overs.
For Australia, Josh Hazlewood (1-26), Glenn Maxwell (1-5), Mitchell Starc (1-23), Ashton Agar (1-25) and Pat Cummins (1-36) were the wicket takers with a wicket each.
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Australia lost David Warner inside the powerplay and Aaron Finch was the one was looking quite raspy but somehow hung around till the end. Despite being economical in the initial half, Maheesh Theekshana got the spanking in the hands of Stoinis at the fag end. He remained unbeaten on 59 of 18 balls with a strike rate of 327.78.Â
Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell looked a bit aggressive in their approach but could score in brisks. Stoinis the Finisher oozed out at Perth today and made sure that Australia goes past the finishing line with an improvement in the net run rate.Â
Lahiru Kumara was the only bowler who glittered for Sri Lanka, and had rushed the Aussie batters. Chamika Karunaratne was also a bit economical and grabbed a wicket.
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