COLOMBO: Australia’s wicket-keeper batsman Alex Carey rescued his side in the run chase before Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins dismantled Sri Lanka’s batting lineup to drive his side to seal a consolidated win in the fifth ODI.
In a fifth dead-rubber ODI, Australia kept nerves calm in the race chase as Carey bolstered her side with a challenging stroke to propel the tour team to a six-wicket win as they chased 161 in the 40th.
In the race chase, the tour side got off to a dismal start as they lost four wickets by just 50 runs. Carey and Marnus Labuschagne then anchored the running chase with a 51-run partnership for the fifth wicket and neutralized the horror before Dunith Wellalage caught the latter in his legs for 31.
Goalkeeper Carey then found himself in a brief partnership with all-rounder Glenn Maxwell as they added 20 runs to the team’s total before Wellalage struck again to break the partnership as Australia dropped to 121/6 with forty more to win.
Bowling all-rounder Cameron Green then showed brilliance when he teamed up with Carey to lead the team to victory in the 40. Carey remained undefeated with his gutsy 45-for-65 with the help of a limit, while Green he scored a gutsy 25 with no out on 26 balls.
For Sri Lanka, Wellalage shone on the ball; taking three wickets, while Maheesh Theekshana bagged two. Pramod Madushan, on the other hand, made a scalp.
Batting first, the Australian bowlers completely dominated the hosts’ batting line-up as seven batsmen failed to score in double figures.
All-rounder Chamika Karunaratne fought hard with his gutsy 75 but he too was unable to propel his team to a defensible total as Sri Lanka were only able to score 160 before dropping at 44.
For Australia, Matthew Kuhnemann, Hazlewood and Cummins each picked two wickets, while Maxwell and Green each struck out one batter.
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