Sri Lanka v. Aussies-4th ODI

[pies4ever]

Hayden battles knee injury

By Malcolm Conn - Fox Sports

February 27, 2004

MATTHEW HAYDEN will not know his immediate future until today, when he tries to prove his fitness for tonight's limited-overs match against Sri Lanka at Premadasa Stadium.

The powerful opener is battling a swollen right knee which may keep him out of the game, offering Simon Katich the chance to play his first match of the tournament.

It is a problem Hayden first sustained during the Test series against India.

He aggravated it diving on the rock-hard outfield on Wednesday night and was forced from the ground.

Although he opened the batting in the third match of the five-game series, which Australia won by five wickets to go 2-1 up, Hayden struggled for movement, holing out to cover for three.

Team physiotherapist Alex Kountouri said the fact that Hayden managed to bat at all was "a pretty good effort" given his pain.

"He was struggling to put weight on it," Kountouri said.

He described the problem as bone bruising. A scan in Australia during the summer cleared Hayden of any structural damage.

"I wasn't so confident at the time but he's pulled up pretty well," Kountouri said yesterday after icing the injury regularly during the night.

Andrew Symonds' outstanding form continues to move him closer to an unlikely Test place.

He controlled the last 20 overs of the game after Australia lost Ricky Ponting (63) and Damien Martyn (62) in seven balls with 91 runs still required for victory.

Symonds finished unbeaten on 45 from 52 balls with four fours and a six, sharing an unbroken partnership of 68 at the end with Michael Clarke (31 in 36 balls).

"He's playing beautifully," Ponting said of Symonds.

"It's exciting to think we could have him a Test line-up the way he's playing at the moment.

"He plays spin really well and if they bowl a bad ball he's going to put it away.

"Someone like him to have around is a good thing for the squad and the team."

Symonds has scored 118 runs in the series at almost a run a ball and has not been dismissed, bar for the umpire's temporary aberration in the second match when he was wrongly given out leg before wicket then recalled.

Like most of the Australian batsmen, Symonds has handled Sri Lanka's strike bowler Muttiah Muralitharan without much difficulty.

Muralitharan has taken only two wickets in the three matches, both in his last over in the first game at Dambulla.

Ponting said that although the Australians had not scored heavily off Muralitharan they had certainly blunted his effect as a wicket-taker.

"I don't think he's bowling that badly," Ponting said. "I think we've played him pretty well.

"Our approach towards him has been spot on so far. No wickets in the last two games for over 90 runs has been a good result for us.

"Most of our batsmen are picking him and playing him really well. Hopefully we can do that again."

Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu has not been using Muralitharan for long spells, often bringing him on to trouble a new batsman for two or three overs.

"On these sort of wickets, particularly when you're batting second, (they) are always hard to start on," Ponting said.

"What will generally happen is that the Sri Lankans will usually bring Murali back for the new batsman, which makes it even harder."

Also significant for Australia with the three-Test series looming was the way Jason Gillespie unsettled the Sri Lankan top order on a wicket which offered a little extra bounce.

Gillespie was man of the match following an opening spell of 3-19 and Michael Kasprowicz made a strong return to international cricket in the place of a resting Brett Lee.

"If our fast bowlers bowl well then we're a chance to get these guys two or three down early," Ponting said.

"We had a few flying high off the bat, which was pleasing."

Gillespie was similarly delighted.

"If you can extract anything out of the wicket and put them under a little bit pressure in that way, by bowling a little bit short here and there and then reverting back to a good line and length, it certainly does seem to unsettle them," Gillespie said.

"That's the goal - to get them to play a shot they're uncomfortable with."




cheers bryan..!!

[Donny]

This from the above article:

"Team physiotherapist Alex Kountouri said the fact that Hayden managed to bat at all was "a pretty good effort" given his pain.

"He was struggling to put weight on it," Kountouri said."

Why ? I find this baffling. Why play an injured player ? It's not as if we only have 11 players over there.

Katich would be busting for a game and they play a batsman who was "struggling to put weight on" one knee. And He's such a vital part of our Test team. Why did they risk further injury ?

Perhaps we were fortunate he made a duck. Bearing in mind, he took this injury into the match, he wouldn't have been able to have a runner anyway, if his knee got worse.

[Donny]

Ponting won the toss and Australia will bat.
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Gilly goes for 14. Ponting starts with a nice boundary through mid wicket.

1/37 in the 6th. over.
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After 10 overs, it's 2/47. Hayden went (soft dismissal) for 15.
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Ponting hits 2 sixes from a Vaas over. 27 from 29 balls.
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Martyn goes for 1. After 9 overs, it's 3/91. Ponting has brought up his 50.

[Donny]

Kaspa claims Jayasuriya for a duck.

After 4 overs, Sri Lanka are 1/13.
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1/33 after 10.

[Donny]

Michael Kasprowicz claimed a Man of the Match 5/45 and Adam Gilchrist equalled his own (equal with Jacobs and Stewart) ODI world record with 6 catches as Australia wrapped up the 5 match ODI series.

Sangakkara scored an excellent century.

At 6/189, Sri Lanka were well in it but wickets with the 1st., 3rd. and 5th. deliveries of the 43rd. over from Kaspa knocked the stuffing out of them.

With the series decided, Williams and Katich will probably play in the 5th. match, on Sunday. I hope so. Lee will probably get a run as well, with the Test series just around the corner.

Gilly may also be given a rest.

There's a 3 day practice match starting on the 2nd. and the first Test starts on Monday week, the 8th. of March.

[Donny]

Ponting says win 'fantastic'

From Michael Donaldson in Colombo


AUSTRALIA'S determination to fight until the bitter end delivered cricket's world champions another series win on foreign soil.

"That was a fantastic win," captain Ricky Ponting said after the series-sealing 40-run victory over Sri Lanka.

In a game where both sides had periods of dominance, Ponting said his team's triumph was built on a determination to "hang in" for as long as possible.

Australia went from cruising with the bat to struggling as the world champions lost 4-5 in 10 balls before finishing with 233 to give the hosts a chance to square the five-match series.

At 2-143 the Sri Lankans looked like they would level the series but they lost 8-50 to capitulate in 43.4 overs, with Michael Kasprowicz taking career-best figures of 5-45 and Adam Gilchrist equalling his own world record of six catches in the match.

"We had things going our way half way through our batting innings, but things change around pretty quickly over here," Ponting said.

"At one stage we were looking at about 260 ... and ended up about 30 short. Then we were behind the eight ball early with the ball.

"But as I said to the guys out onto the ground, the side that hangs in there the longest in this game will probably win."

Man of the match Kasprowicz said the win, like the triumph over India in Calcutta late last year, came thanks to strong team unity and a defiance in the face of foreign conditions.

"You can feel the emotion in the team that comes from achieving something special," Kasprowicz said.

"Playing in Australia you know the conditions but to come over here and play on turning wickets against unfamiliar spinners on lightning quick outfields - everything's just so different - and I think that's the challenge."

Kasprowicz claimed a key wicket for Australia when he removed century-maker Kumar Sangakkara for 101 off 110 balls.

After the wicketkeeper-batsman departed there was little resistance from the middle to lower order and Kasprowicz cleaned up for his first five-wicket haul in one-day internationals.

"I've definitely bowled better in domestic cricket but never better for Australia," he said.

Gilchrist's six catches equals a world record mark he's now achieved three times along with England's Alec Stewart.

It meant a tumultuous week, in which he was fined for dissent, ended on a high.

"I know he was very happy with that," Ponting said.

"Equalling the world record in one-day cricket doesn't happen every day."

The victory was just reward for Gilchrist who earlier repeated his World Cup act of sportsmanship by walking on 14 when he tickled a catch down the legside to continue a lean trot in the past three games.


"Gilly's still batting well, there's no doubt about that. He probably hasn't scored as many as he would have liked in the last couple of games, but don't worry he'll play well in the Tests," Ponting vowed.

Australia will probably rest a number of key players for the final match in the series tomorrow, with Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie and perhaps Ponting or Matthew Hayden the likely candidates to make way for Brad Haddin, Brad Williams and Simon Katich, who have yet to play on tour.

"Obviously we've got a few guys in the shed that haven't played any cricket at all and a few that have only played a couple of games. We want to try and give most guys a bit of cricket," Ponting said.

While Shane Warne has arrived in Colombo for the Test series, Ponting ruled him out of contention for a one-off appearance in the one-day match.