Perth: Australia made a comprehensive win over Sri Lanka (SL), the former thrashing the latter to the ground for seven wickets in their Super 12 match of ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022 here on Tuesday.
Australia had to win this match to keep their WC campaign on after they lost their first match against New Zealand, particularly by a significant margin. But they beat SL with 21 balls and seven wickets remaining.
Australia, who won the toss and sent SL to bat, kept a hard grip on their bowling and SL batters struggled to find runs during most of the first innings. However, Charith Asalanka and Chamika Karunaratne appeared and played cameos, adding 37 runs from the last 15 deliveries in the final overs to take SL to a respectable total of 157/6 in 20 overs. Asalanka scored an unbeaten 38 off 25, and Karunaratne scored 14 off 7. Pathum Nissanka (40) and Dhananjaya de Silva (26) batted well at the start but it didn't help.
For Australia, Marcus Stoinis, fifth-man-in, blasted a half-ton with his bat (59 not out off 18) and powered the Aussies to win comfortably. Also, skipper Aaron Finch (31 not out) aided the scoring, along with Glenn Maxwell (23). They met the target with 21 balls remaining.
Dhananjaya de Silva batted well for SL and also became the less expensive bowler for the team with 1/18.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 157/6 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 40, Charith Asalanka 38 not out; Glenn Maxwell 1/5) lost to Australia 158/3 in 16.3 Overs (Marcus Stoinis 59 not out, Aaron Finch 31 not out; Dhananjaya de Silva 1/18) by 7 wickets