Australia’s Nathan Lyon (right) celebrates the wicket of Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews with teammates during the third test cricket match between in Colombo, Sri Lanka
George Bailey hit 70 and shared two crucial partnerships to help Australia beat Sri Lanka by two wickets in their third one-day international (ODI) on Sunday and take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
Sri Lanka batted after winning the toss and was bowled out for 226 in the final over. Dinesh Chandimal hit his fourth one-day century and held the Sri Lanka innings together amid a flurry of wickets.
Australia faced some early setbacks in the run chase, losing three wickets for 44 runs. But Bailey shared 62 for the fourth wicket with Travis Head (36) and 81 for the fifth wicket with Matthew Wade (42) to steer the tourists to win. Bailey was named man of the match.
David Warner led Australia for the first time with Steve Smith having gone home to rest. But Warner’s poor form continued as he was brilliantly caught by Tillakaratne Dilshan at point for 10 runs with Australia’s total on 31.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews, Aponso and Dilruwan Perera all took two wickets each.
“To be brutally honest, we should have probably won that five wickets down,” Australia captain Warner said. “For us, our top order probably hasn’t been going as well as I would have liked. I put my hand up as well – I haven’t been in the form I would have liked.”
“We should have got big partnerships earlier in the innings, we have not done that so far,” added Warner. “But good to cross the line 2-1.”
Sri Lanka captain Mathews said his team was 20-30 runs short.
“Bit disappointing, because we have so many bowlers who can bat. But unfortunately, we didn’t end up having a partner for Chandimal,” Mathews said.
Earlier, Chandimal held Sri Lanka’s innings together, helping his team to a modest 226.
Coming in to bat when Sri Lanka was 23 for two, Chandimal hit seven boundaries in his 130-ball innings of 102 before being out as the last batsman with four deliveries left in the innings.
The fourth match will also be played in Dambulla, tomorrow. MDT/AP
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