Australia comfortably defeat Sri Lanka
They were a few boundaries short of dominating the tri-series on Tuesday but now they're under serious pressure as Sri Lanka lost to Australia in a low scoring match. After South Africa's soporific approach to batting earlier this week, it seems both teams warmed to the security of a cautious approach over the heart palpitations of risky, big hitting. Sri Lanka, batting first, plodded along to 8 for 218. Without Sanath Jayasuriya, they were a completely different side to the team that struck 300+ last week. It didn't help that they kept losing regular wickets. Australia chased the total comfortably, never really stretching their legs. The only hiccup was a couple of late wickets by Muttiah Muralitharan but Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke got us home without much drama. Good to see Mr Cricket back to doing what he does best - carrying his wicket and boosting his batting average.
Australia can breath a sigh of relief - not so much because we needed the win (although we do) but more to deflect any criticism of Ricky Ponting being rested for two matches. Every man and his dog has come out criticising the move (personally, I don't mind it). If we lost the match and went on to miss the final, heads would roll (the last time we missed a tri-series final, it ended Steve Waugh's one day career). Fortunately, losing our best bastman (and captain) was neutralised by Sri Lanka losing their best batsman to injury so it all evened out. Ricky can look forward to another day off this weekend.
The other point of interest was how Simon Katich would fare. Everyone in Australia except Katich and his mum want him to fail so we can get Phil Jaques into the side. Problem is the guy keeps getting runs, dammit! Could this be a similar situation to Brett Lee last year? Lesser bowler Michael Kasprowicz kept him out of the side with par performances for a year and a half. Consequently, Lee was underdone at Test level when we needed him during the Ashes. Will we see a similar situation with Jaques and the World Cup?
| Posted by JC on Fri 27 Jan |  0 comments |
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