Australia rode an impressive performance from their bowlers before Usman Khawaja’s 89 helped them brush Sri Lanka with 5 wickets in their final warm-up match as both teams look to fine-tune their team combinations in England and Wales ahead of World Cup 2019
Having slowly found its shape and confidence over the past three months, Australia rediscovered its swagger as one of the most feared outfits on Monday night to head into the World Cup.
Australia had a mountain to climb back when it lost five consecutive bilateral ODI series and 18 of its past 22 matches in February. But a miraculous turnaround has been completed in time for the tournament and then built upon a cruisy five-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Southampton the latest statement from Justin Langer’s men.
Australia’s disciplined bowling performance limited Sri Lanka to 239 for eight, but when Khawaja limped off after getting his knee hit while fielding, they looked to have suffered a blow. He later emerged to open the batting alongside captain Aaron Finch and with a 105-ball 89 continued his push for a spot in the top order of Australia.
Shaun Marsh (34), Glenn Maxwell (36) and Marcus Stoinis (32) did not build on solid starts but wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey and Pat Cummins ensured Australia was chasing down the total with 31 spare balls. Finch, who deployed eight bowlers in Southampton on a chilly day, was pleased with preparations ahead of Saturday’s World Cup opener against Afghanistan.
After choosing to bat first, Sri Lanka was off to a steady start, but wickets in the middle overs at regular intervals from Australian spinners meant they couldn’t post a big score. Opener Lahiru Thirimanne scored a half-century, but offspinner Nathan Lyon’s dismissal sparked a middle-order collapse as Sri Lanka slipped from 110 to 2 to 161 to 6.
To ensure that Sri Lanka breached the 200-run mark, Allrounder Dhananjaya de Silva (43) shared a 64-run seventh-wicket stand with Thisara Perera (27) before Mitchell Starc rattled his stumps in the 47th over.
Fast bowler Pat Cummins was the most economical bowler of Australia, gathering 1-23 from eight overs, while legspinner Adam Zampa gathered 2-39 from nine overs.
