11 February 2022 06:23 pm Views - 1587
Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa bowled Australia to victory in a rusty first home limited-overs outing of the summer that nonetheless saw Sri Lanka defeated by 20 runs on the DLS method in a rain-affected T20 International at the SCG.
Opening in place of the rested David Warner, KFC BBL player-of-the-tournament Ben McDermott (53 off 41) carried his supreme form into his international return in his finest knock in Australian colours to see Australia reach 9-149.
It was the Aussies men's team's lowest total batting first in a home T20I since 2014 but Zampa (3-18) showed why teammates thought he was the best bowler in their recent T20 World Cup win in helping knock the visitors over for 122.
Hazlewood was playing his first game of cricket in over two months but hardly bowled a bad delivery, underscoring his emergence as one of the game's most effective T20 pacemen and proving unplayable in a spell of 4-12.
Sri Lanka, blown away on their most recent trip down under at the start of the 2019-20 summer, nevertheless did enough to suggest they will not be easy-beats in this five-match Dettol series.