Sri Lanka tour of Australia 2022 News

Sri Lanka batting line-up failed to turn up on Tuesday, 15 February at Canberra, ensuring that the series win was out of the bounds for the visitors. Australia won the game by a comprehensive margin of 6 wickets chasing down a modest target of 122 runs in 16.5 overs. A sporting pitch at Canberra meant that captain Aaron Finch showed no hesitation in bowling first and threw a Josh Hazlewood challenge at the Lankans. The right hander’s exceptional control on the off stump line led to a lot of issues for the Lankans. Although he was hit for a boundary in his first over, he did very well in the remaining 5 deliveries taking the ball slightly away from the right hander. Finch mixed up his attack in the powerplay, bowling Mitchell Starc, Hazlewood and Kane Richardson in the first three overs. Richardson’s ability to get the ball move away from the left hander rewarded him with the wicket of Charith Asalanka and a soft dismissal of Danushka Gunathilaka meant that the visitors were pushed to the backfoot straight away. Runs were not easy to come by for Lanka batters as the spinners mixed up their pace throughout and the pacers bowled clever slower balls. Barring Mitchell Starc’s wayward final over, Australia looked in full control over the order as SL crumbled slowly to just put 121 runs in their 20 overs. Kane Richardson was the pick among the bowlers picking up three wickets from his four overs giving away just 21 runs. Coming into bat, Australia were never going to be troubled at their own backyard with just a small total, but the Lankan bowlers were not going to give up without a fight. Mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana started the proceedings with a first ball wicket of Ben McDermott edging him back to the slip fielder. He put the Canberra drift to good use picking up two wickets in the powerplay for 17 runs, out of which 12 came in the last over of the powerplay. Despite sending McDermott and promoted Ashton Agar back into the hut early, Lanka’s progress was cut short by a certain Glenn Maxwell who was in the mood to put on a show. A 26-ball 39 innings studded with 3 boundaries and 2 huge sixes took Sri Lanka out of the equation fairly quickly, while Aaron Finch played a slow innings of 36-ball 35 alongside him. At the time of getting out, Maxwell had set up Australia for a big win needing 45 runs off the last 9 overs. The rest of the work was done by Jos Inglis and Marcus Stoinis in the back end as they put together a partnership of 22 runs from 16 balls, wrapping the game up well in advance. Australia now will go into the final two matches with a lot of scope for experiment with Sri Lanka not having the services of Wanindu Hasaranga for the rest of the games. The last two games are scheduled for 18 and 20 February in Melbourne.

Sri Lanka all rounder and one of the most expensive overseas buys in the recently hosted Indian Premier League mega Auction - Wanindu Hasaranga did not feature in the third T20I between Australia and Sri Lanka. It was reported in the early hours of Canberra T20I that Hasranga had tested positive for the virus on Rapid Antigen Test and has since been in isolation. He is the third positive test result in the Sri Lanka camp at the moment after Kusal Mendis and Binura Fernando. With a seven day isolation period set for all Covid cases, Hasaranga is in line to miss the entire T20I series which still have two matches to be played and gets wrapped up on 20 February in Melbourne. Alongside him Fernando will be also be missing the fourth game, but might return to play the last one in Melbourne. Kusal Mendis though, was available for selection in today’s game but scored only four runs off 11 deliveries, before chipping one to Ashton Agar who was bowling from the other end. Sri Lanka found it very difficult to score against the likes of Josh Hazlewood and Kane Richardson who kept maintaining the off stump line throughout their bowling spell. Richardson reaped the rewards of Hazlewood's pressure in his very first over edging back Charith Asalanka. He has picked up two more since then. At the time of writing, Sri Lanka are in a precarious position having scored 69 runs or the loss of four wickets in 14 overs. Sri Lanka are down by 0-2 in the T20I series at the moment.

After Kusal Mendis and Binura Fernando, Wanindu Hasaranga became the third casualty in the Sri Lankan camp. The ace all-rounder has been the lynchpin in the new look Lankan side.

The caravan of Sri Lanka's T20I tour of Australia rolls on as the former World Cup-winners lock horns with reigning champions in the second game of the five-match series at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Sunday.

Australia defeated Sri Lanka by 20 runs (D/L method) after restricting them to 122/8 in 19 overs while chasing 143 in Sydney. The visitors never really looked in control after Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood ripped apart the Sri Lankan batting order. The two bowlers shared a total of 7 wickets among themselves. The visiting team suffered an early blow and lost wickets at regular intevrals during the course of the innings to get reduced to 90/7 before eventually losing the game. Dinesh Chandimal tried to chip in with a few runs as he remained unbeaten at 25 off 16 but couldn't take his team over the line. Hazlewood returned with figures of 4/12 in 4 overs while Zampa picked up three wickets for 18 runs in 4 overs. Earlier, Australia started off the batting in a decent manner as they were 80/2 but Inglis' departure in 11th wicket was follwed by a few more wickets as the hosts were 107/5 at one stage. It was then Stoinis who took the onus on himself and made a valuable contribution to help his team put 149/9 in 20 overs. He scored 30 off 17. Binura Fernando was the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka as he picked up two wickets for 12 runs in 4 overs.

With the focus now on the marquee T20 event, scheduled later this year, Australia and Sri Lanka will see the upcoming series as an opportunity to figure out their best possible XIs.