Sri Lanka Hand Australia Their First Twenty20 Defeat At Home as Australia Keep Stumbling

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Sreelata YellamrazuNov 1 2010

Michael Clarke will find himself in greater pressure after Sri Lanka have the Australians something more to brood about by beating them in the Twenty20 match in their own backyard.

lasitha malinga dismisses cameron white

The Australian Twenty20 captain pushed himself to the top of the order in a bid to shake off the growing criticism of his own batting form, particularly in the Twenty20 format. The move seemed only to briefly succeed before the Sri Lankans had the last laugh.

A great back peddling catch by Dilhara Fernando sent back Clarke, the second wicket to fall for the Australians and it was not long before they found themselves in a deep hole at five down for forty-three at the half way mark when Australia's best hope, Cameron White, was caught by the Sri Lankan captain, Kumar Sangakkara, off the bowling of Lasith Malinga.

Ultimately it was Thisara Perera and Suraj Randiv who impressed the wickets tally column even as the Sri Lankan bowlers formed a cohesive unit in strangling the Australian batting efforts and reaping the reward of restricting them to 133 in Perth.

In contrast, the Sri Lankan batting showed little timidity as Tillkeratne Dilshan blazed away with the bat for forty-one runs while Sangakkara played the role of the partner to perfection with own personal contribution of forty-four as Sri Lanka won the match comprehensively by seven wickets.

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