What a finish! Sri Lanka win by 26 runs (on DLS) to bring some more joy to the supporters in great scenes. Australia will wonder what went wrong there. The final collapse was 5 for 19, but it was a fairly sloppy chase right through. After the spinners kept Sri Lanka in the game it was the two fiery quicks who produced the goods at the end. After all that, the series is 1-1 heading back to Colombo. Fantastic stuff from the home side. They know they can challenge Australia.
Here's a stat from Sampath: 5 for 19 is Australia's worst 5-wicket collapse in an ODI chase since 5 for 14 in the 1998 Tri-series final vs South Africa. (221 for 5 to 235 all-out in a 242-run chase)
Bilal: "Let's not forget Dushmantha Chameeras efforts. Everyone called for a better performance from him to better support the spinners after the first game....and look how he turned out... AMAZING!" He was superb. He's an excellent bowler. Has real pace.
Chamika Karunaratne is player of the match: "After a long time I was waiting for this moment. I know I can do well and it's come today and I'm so happy about it. Everything is planning...I'm always thinking out of the box. I'm always challenging batsmen. I always like to take a risk."
Aaron Finch "The fielding, we were very poor. Guys getting starts and not going on, similar to the last game. It was very poor [in the field]...we could have attacked the ball more. Chasing in these conditions is something we need to keep improving on. Tonight showed we were off the pace a bit."
Dasun Shanaka "The Australians bowled really well so were short a few runs...but had a good feeling my bowlers would defend the target. We need to come up with the right options [with the bat]. Chamika is a born warrior and whenever I throw the ball he delivers. I had a lot of trust in [Dunith Wellalage] as well. When I threw the ball he's ready to take the chance."
On that note, I'll wrap things up there for tonight. Fantastic effort from Sri Lanka to level the series and it has set up what should be a terrific three games in Colombo. We'll be back on Sunday for the first of those but for now, from Gnasher, Alex and Chandan it's goodbye and thanks for joining us.
MP Kuhnemann b Chameera 1 (10m 2b 0x4 0x6) SR: 50.00
Hayes: "Hard to believe that half of this side are World Cup winners in this format. This has been a woefully constructed chase. I credit Sri Lanka as much as I am frustrated with Australia."
END OF OVER:37 | 8 Runs 1 Wkt | AUS: 189/9 (32 runs required from 13 overs, RR: 5.10, RRR: 2.46)
- Josh Hazlewood4 (3b)
- Matthew Kuhnemann1 (1b)
- Chamika Karunaratne7-0-47-3
- Dushmantha Chameera6-0-19-1
Hashan: "Wellalage is showing signs of a most wanted genuine all-rounder for SL."