Aussies v. Sri Lanka - 2nd. ODI

[zoia]

Sri Lanka won the toss and have elected to bat

[Donny]

They made 245.

Michael Clarke took 5/35. Jayasuriya made 55 and Atapattu, 47 before Ponting ran him out with the silky skills we've come to know of this master fieldsman.

For some strange reason, Clarke was asked to open the batting and lasted 3 balls. 2 ducks now for Clarke. Just as well he can roll the arm over so well.

After 2 matches in this series who'd have thought 2 different Aussie spinners would've had a 5 wicket haul each and Murali, 1/30 in the first match and 0/23 from 4 overs today..

Australia is 1/126 with Hayden and Ponting both notching 50s. They need 5 r.p.o. to win.

[Donny]

Great finish !! Sri Lanka win by 1 run.

Excellent bowling from Vaas.

[Donny]

Murali: 20 overs, 1 wicket for 79. He's also just a human, JLC.

[Collies4Eva]

Bevan lost that game for us imo, we were cruisin at 3/170 at 1 stage with plenty of wkts in hand when the wheels fell off, even with 5 overs to go and 5 wkts in hand we couldve gone for a quick kill, instead bevo decided to stretch it out till the last over with pissy litle 1s and 2s and dots. i was tearing my hairr out cuz symmo wasnt getting any strike!!!!!!!!! as for marto he did his usual noncontributon but not worth talking bout as wats new???? i reckon we lost that game rather than SL winning it though they did play well to hang in there

[JLC]

The disappointing fact was that Australia lost yet still had 5 wickets left. It was a pretty simple a run a ball equation that slowly was made more difficult.

As usual Bevan leaves it until the last over to try and win the game. This time however he failed. Hey but at least he got more red ink.

jlc

[Donny]

Marvan Atapattu is quickly gaining respect as a captain and leader (yes, they can be two very different jobs) and I suspect the pressure is on Hashan Tillakaratne as Test skipper.
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'It's only a game after all,' says Atapattu

Wisden Cricinfo staff


What the key players said after the match:

Marvan Atapattu Sri Lanka's captain

We thought 240 was a good score, but the way we finished was not too good getting just 45 runs in the last 10 overs. We did not plan enough at the end, and if we had concentrated on getting ones and twos we would have got around 270-odd.

The [Symonds lbw] decision was made and the umpires decided to call him back and they asked me whether I had a problem with that. Our guys knew it was a wrong decision and we didn't know what to do but when they asked him I was happy to call him back. It's only a game, after all, and we have to play the game in the right spirit. I said no because we all make mistakes and it was clearly a mistake. I don't see anything wrong in that.

Ricky Ponting Australia's captain

It was close and a great game of cricket. I was pretty happy with the way we went about things today. We were behind the eight-ball early in the game after a very good opening partnership, but we fought back really well with the ball. The batting was pretty good – just two runs shy. The guys will take a lot of confidence out of knowing that we can perform as well as we did today on a very worn Sri Lankan wicket.

You are always disappointed when you lose a close game, but we are not going to point the finger at any individuals. If you look back over the game you could probably pick up half-a-dozen incidents [that cost us the game].

We needed one of us to go on a finish it off, as it was not easy getting a start out there. But I played a poor shot and Matty [Hayden] got caught on the boundary and we did not finish the job. He played really well but we have come to expect that from him as he churns out runs in both forms of the game for us.

The venue was good but I was a little disappointed that we used the same wicket today. With there not being a lot of cricket here I would have thought there would have been time for the curator to prepare two wickets.

Chaminda Vaas Man of the Match and bowler of the fateful final over

Marvan asked me to bowl the final over and I used my experience and tried to bowl six yorkers, and it went nicely. I have played 220-odd matches but I think this was the best one that I have played. I have been playing for Sri Lanka for ten years and I know exactly what to do on these wickets.