AUS vs SL 1st Match, SL vs AUS 2022

After seeing the first innings one could have said, the World Champions have survived an unforeseen loss at the hands of Sri Lanka. The tourists may have kept Australia down on 150 runs in the first innings. But this varied Aussie attack today stated that a mere total of 150 runs is more than good for them. At least against Sri Lanka’s mediocre batting. 

The home team’s new-ball bowler kicked off their innings with disciplined lines and lengths, resulting in Gunathilaka's wicket off Hazlewood. Nissanka played a couple of glorious, first against Starc and then took the attack to Stoinis, but his strike rate was never at par. That backfired for the Lankans, but we’ll come to that later. 

Australia scripted a famous win in the series-opener and the chief architect for that was Adam Zampa. The wrist-spinner was spellbinding against the Asian side as they failed to pick variations both from hand and off the deck. For instance, Hasaranga and Asalanka were done with leg-breaks, while the leggie outslicked the stylish but struggling Nissanka. 

Coming onto what backfired for the Lankans, the opener played a 37-ball long knock where he served five beautiful boundaries and a dreamy maximum. However, he could only score 36 runs (out of which 26 runs from boundaries), meaning despite hitting the ball marvellously, Nissanka struggled to place the ball in gaps and rotate singles or doubles. That backfired!

When Nissanka got dismissed, Sri Lanka were left under enormous pressure and the other batters couldn’t take that load. As a result, they lost as many as seven wickets in just 40 runs. Two portions of rain-breaks also helped the home team, however even without the rain-break, Australia would have been too good for Sri Lanka.