WADE GUIDES AUSTRALIA TO SERIES-CLINCHING WIN

Matthew Wade scored an unbeaten 26

Australia were made to work hard in chasing a modest target of 125 but the steady hands of Matthew Wade took them to a series-clinching win in the second T20I against Sri Lanka at the R Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

At 99 for 7, Sri Lanka had clawed their way back into a contest which looked over as early as the fifth over of the chase, the Australians cruising on 53 for 1 at that point. Wade however, brought an exact measure of calm, replacing the urge to score boundaries with the patience to find the gaps, ultimately fizzling out Sri Lanka’s resurgence led by Wanindu Hasaranga, for a three-wicket win with 13 balls to spare.

Hasaranga was called into the attack, soon after openers David Warner and Aaron Finch, the unbeaten half-centurions from the first T20I, wiped out 25 of the required runs in just two overs. The wrist-spinner conceded eight runs off his first three deliveries before Finch sliced a catch straight to cover, giving the home team a glimmer of hope. Warner and Mitchell Marsh quickly attempted to snuff that hope out, each scoring a pair of boundaries, only for it to be reignited when the latter was trapped plumb in front in Hasaranga’s next over. Nuwan Thushara dismissed Steven Smith in the next over and Warner ran himself out in the over after, the Australians slipping from 53 for 2 to 63 for 4, giving the Sri Lankans a foot in the door. Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Wade brought the chase under control once again, reducing the deficit by 31 runs over the next five overs – Stoinis the only batsman dismissed during that period of play. It was left to Hasaranga to spring a late collapse in his final over, and the spinner delivered, accounting for the wickets of Maxwell and Ashton Agar off consecutive balls, a hat-trick denied by the smallest of margins as the ball narrowly missed Jhye Richardson’s bat and the off-stump.

Those were the last moments of success Sri Lanka would enjoy however, with Wade and Jhye Richardson striking up an uneventful 27-run partnership, of which Wade scored 18 runs. While Sri Lanka would take the lack of a dramatic top and middle order collapse as seen in the first T20I on Tuesday as a positive, a lack of purpose through the middle overs, in the face of disciplined bowling meant they could only muster 124 in 20 overs. It was the ninth defeat in ten T20Is this year for the Sri Lankans, many of those losses a result of a recurring problem in being unable to set a matchwinning score, only once scoring above 150 when batting first.

A majority of Sri Lanka’s runs yesterday came in the 66-run third-wicket partnership between Charith Asalanka and Kusal Mendis, the pair showing the kind of intent that was missing in the Powerplay overs, during which the hosts managed just 28 runs, scoring on just 13 of the 36 deliveries faced in that passage of lay. It didn’t help that the two batsmen who set the tempo in the first T20I on Tuesday, Danushka Gunathilaka and Pathum Nissanka, were dismissed inside the first of three overs – Gunathilaka caught at deep square leg and Nissanka slicing a drive straight to the fielder at the third-man boundary, looking to break-free from the shackles of mounting dot balls. Immediately after the Powerplay, Asalanka showed sleek footwork to clear Ashton Agar for six, and there was little rashness from him and Mendis, who did well to rotate the strike giving up just six dot balls in the five overs that followed. Asalanka added two more boundaries, the second of which was a result of a misjudged catch down at deep square leg, where Marsh charged in and slipped watching the ball fly over him. He didn’t have the same amount of luck in the 12th over, where an attempted hoick on 36, resulted in a top edge to short mid-off. Sri Lanka’s chances of a posting a competitive total further hit when Mendis’ bat struck the stumps after being struck on his body by a Jhye Richardson bouncer. Sri Lanka still managed to lose a handful of wickets in a cluster, as their big hitters failed to fire, Hasaranga, Dasun Shanaka, Dushmantha Chameera and Chamika Karunaratne dismissed within the space of five deliveries over the last two overs. Kane Richardson and Jhye Richardson were the beneficiaries finishing with career best figures.