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Australia‘s tour to Sri Lanka comes to its conclusion on Friday at the R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, when the two sides play the second and final T20 of their series. You can follow the live scores and blog of this match here on The Roar from 11:30pm (AEST).
Sri Lanka are in something of a transition, and will be more than happy that they were able to record an emphatic Test series victory 3-0, a result that saw the Australians lose their No.1 Test ranking.
However, in the white ball formats of the game – both the ODIs and now the first T20 – they have found themselves well outclassed by their visitors. They went down 1-4 in the ODI series, and are trailing 0-1 in the T20I series.
In the first of the T20Is Australia posted a world record score of 3/263, with Glenn Maxwell notching up the second highest ever individual score in a T20 with his unbeaten 145. In reply the hosts fought for a bit but managed only 178.
In other circumstances that might have been a more than decent score, but in this case still left the 85 runs short of their opponent’s total.
Maxwell, who struck nine sixes and another 14 fours in his 65-ball massacre, had been dropped from the squad entirely for the ODIs, and was only opening the batting here due to the injury that ruled out Aaron Finch. How the home side must have wished for the return of a man that himself had bludgeoned them during the ODIs.
Also how fortunes change for a man who was recently in such a spot of bother that he had gone from hoping a Test match call-up to an ODI axing.
While Sri Lanka’s batsmen proved capable of countering the Australian attack, the bowlers lack the guile and variety to counter such an attacking and long Australian lineup. And that is a side that is lacking its skipper, Steve Smith, and Mitchell Marsh, both of whom have already been sent home, as well as Finch.
The R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo which is hosting Friday’s match hosted two of the ODIs, including the only Sri Lankan victory, when they levelled that series 1-1 with an 82-run success. That could work as the other positive for Sri Lanka apart from their batting showing but the big question is whether the battered bowling can make a comeback in this second game.
You can follow the live scores and blog of this match here on The Roar from 11:30pm (AEST).
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