It’s sudden death for Australia and Sri Lanka. In a rematch of the World Cup final the winners will move into the semi-finals and the losers will head out of the ICC World Twenty20. The teams come into the crunch match in different states of mind, Australia still struggling to accept the format after losing to Pakistan while Sri Lanka are buoyant after coming through against Bangladesh. Australia have also been hit by the injury to Ricky Ponting, who was ruled out for the rest of the tournament - however long that may be for his team.
Teams
**Australia **(probable) Adam Gilchrist (capt, wk), Matthew Hayden, Brad Hodge, Andrew Symonds, Mike Hussey, Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark.
1.6 Bracken to Tharanga, OUT, that dismissal was somewhat telegraphed. He was dancing around at the crease and, in attempting to whip to leg, found only a leading edge. Brett Lee at deep point swallows a looping chance, and Sri Lanka are in deep trouble now
0.3 Lee to Jayasuriya, OUT, he's gone this time, and that was another cracker - fuller, faster and angling back into the left-hander. No room to play any shot whatsoever, and up goes the finger!
It's gone from bad to worse for Sri Lanka 60/7 after 12 overs
Sri Lanka lost the plot completely today slogging from the word go. Jayasuriya apart the rest of the top-order batsmen have gifted their wickets to Australia. They have been guilty of playing lofted shots, of driving the ball in the air so early on in their innings and have really contributed to their own downfall.
Silva was out caught by Lee on the third-man boundary. I mean what was he thinking? That's just reckless batting
Hence the need to bat sensibly and play the ball along the ground atleast in the initial 5 or 6 overs even in a format such as twenty20. A good batsman should be able to accelerate with minimal risks and slogging - playing the ball along the ground, placing it into gaps, mixing it with the odd lofted shot etc. Good examples being Pakistan's two century partnerships against Sri Lanka (Malik-Younis) and Australia (Malik-Misbah)
Lesson for every team: Even in a tullahbaaz format like twenty-20 if you go gung-ho right from the word go losing too many early wickets, you end up limping towards the end of your innings
Maybe I am being a bit too harsh on Sri Lanka and any team facing Australia in a sudden-death clash in all probabilty would have suffered a similar fate.
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