Centurion Warner (106) and Bailey (44) shared a match winning stand of 132 for the third wicket to take their team to a convincing five-wicket win in the 5th One-Day International against host Sri Lanka at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. This marked the series win for the Aussies with a 4-1 margin.
Chasing the meager target of 196, Matthew Wade (3) and Usman Khawaja (6) couldn’t last long as they were out in the first six overs, putting the team on back foot. Then the match was left for Warner and Bailey to consolidate before they go for the final kill. To start with, the batting duo was troubled by Dilruwan Perera who got good grip and turn off the surface. But the target score of 196 gave them luxury of time and they went through to the target slowly but steadily.
After getting their foot set, Warner decided to counter-attack and Warner did what he is feared for. He got into his groove, checked in a series of shots and composed an impressive hundred. This was the highest individual score made by an Australian in ODIs in Sri Lanka. Coming back from a not so remarkable performances in the series, this was some icing on the winners cake.
While Warner takes the credit from his match winning efforts, contributions of Bailey can’t be ignored who played the supporting role to perfection. And instances of sharp singles and twos were highlight of their partnership. And when they were separated by a Perera delivery which adjudged Bailey LBW which initially was given not out by the on-field Umpire; only to be given out on screen.
Next batsman in, Travis Head couldn’t make much of this outing as he was out on 13, and then the steady ship, Warner, cut loose to lob a return catch to Dhananjaya de Silva. These successes for the Island nation came too little too late as the match was decided by then and the visitors chased down the target in the 43rd over.
Earlier, Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat first on a partly cloudy afternoon. They made a few changes in their line up as Danushka Gunathilaka, Suranga Lakmal, Dasun Shanaka and Upul Tharanga came into the team for Mathews, Thisara Dilshan, Avishka Fernando and Angelo Perera. The Australian team remained same which took 3-1 lead in the series.
Starting off for the Sri Lankan team, openers De Silva and Gunathilaka showed intent to give the hosts a flying start. De Silva’s (34) innings was marked by deft placement on both sides of the wicket, while Gunathilaka (39) seemed to be unburdened by his previous failures in the 50-over format as with a lethal mix of lofted shots and the occasional well-placed leg glance, he pushed the scoring rate along.
As they were set and time was for taking the team to a good score, in came James Faulkner, Australia’s one-day specialist, who dislodged de Silva as the opener lofted a well disguised slower one from Faulkner to the fielder positioned at mid-on.
This led to a mini-collapse in the Sri Lankan innings before Kusal Mendis (33), Sri Lanka’s man in form, tried to resurrect the innings to some extent. He played some jaw-struck cover drives but just when the duo of Mendis and Tharanga (15) looked set for a good score, the former fell to John Hastings.
And then was another collapse with Head, Zampa and Starc sharing five wickets between them to hustle through the lower-order. And then came Boland with the final wicket of Sachith Pathirana’s (32) to fold the hosts innings.
The scoreboard read a below-par total of 195, and it was not going to give much troubles to the visitors unless they would collapse the same way the hosts did; and Warner, perfectly supported by Bailey made sure that this didn’t happen.
Scores:
Sri Lanka 195 in 40.2 overs (Danushka Gunathilaka 39, Dhananjaya de Silva 34; Mitchell Starc 3-40)
Australia: 199/5 in 43 overs (David Warner 106, George Bailey 44; Dilruwan Perera 3-51)
Result: Australia won by 5 wickets.