Key events
9th over: Sri Lanka 58-1 (Nissanka 29, de Silva 15) Agar again, he’s varying his speeds effectively, sending down a mix of fizzers and flighters. Nissanka and de Silva effect some harum-scarum running but safely make their ground. Their partnership goes above fifty too. Eight runs stolen from the over.
8th over: Sri Lanka 50-1 (Nissanka 22, de Silva 15) Seven runs from Stoinis’ first, Dhananjaya crunches a flat bat shot back past the muscular bolwer but the ball obliterates the stumps instead of fizzing away for four. Agar fumbles an easy stop at backward point and the big Stoin gives him a glare. Sri Lanka notch up their fifty for the loss of a single wicket.
7th over: Sri Lanka 43-1 (Nissanka 19, de Silva 11) Ashton Agar into the attack and he twirls away on a tight line for five balls before Dhananjaya has enough of poking and prodding and skips down the track to drive for four. Seven gone, Stoinis called for.
6th over: Sri Lanka 36-1 (Nissanka 17, de Silva 6) Decent final over in the powerplay for Sri Lanka, they get 11 runs off it largely due to two top edges that fly away over the diminutive* Mathew Wade behind the sticks.
*Don’t reckon he’d like that.
5th over: Sri Lanka 25-1 (Nissanka 10, de Silva 6) Cripes! Starc sends down two full out-swinging balls to start the over and Nissanka throws the kitchen sink, fridge, kettle and all the utensils at both but fails to connect. Starc looks unimpressed. There’s plenty of pace and bounce and at the moment Sri Lanka are struggling to get the ball away, perhaps swishing a bit too hard. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. Three off the over.
4th over: Sri Lanka 22-1 (Nissanka 9, de Silva 6) Cummins continues and keeps it tight. Pounding away back of a length, jagging the ball back into the batters. Shot! Dhananjaya gets on top of the bounce and steers away for four. Both sides sizing each other up in the early stages. Starc is coming on for whirl.
Australian players celebrates the dismissal of Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis (R) during the ICC men’s Twenty20 World Cup 2022 cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka in Perth Photograph: Trevor Collens/AFP/Getty Images
3rd over: Sri Lanka 16-1 (Nissanka 8, de Silva 1) Nissanka steps to leg and swishes Hazlewood away to the leg side fence for four. The next ball is plinked down the ground and just evades a back pedalling David Warner. Aggressive intent from the Sri Lankan top order. Hazlewood then bungs down two wides down the leg side, the last of which he appeals for a burgle to Wade behind the stumps but Umpire Erasmus is having none of it as he chews his gum and nonchalantly outstretches his arms.
WICKET! K Mendis ct Marsh b Cummins 5 (Sri Lanka 6-1)
Mendis scythes Cummins away for a top edged four down to third and then tries an even bigger swish to the next one, stepping away to leg but only managing to connect with fresh air. Gone! Another hack goes straight up and is pouched safely by Mitch Marsh. Australia have an early strike. Dhananjaya de Silva is the new bat.
2nd over: Sri Lanka 6-1 (Nissanka 1, de Silva 0)
1st over: Sri Lanka 2-0 (Nissanka 1, Mendis 1) Hazlewood is right on the button, getting a bit of zip and away swing off the Perth pitch, he beats the edge a couple of times to moans and groans from the cordon. Nissanka and Mendis both get off the mark with a single. Here comes Pat Cummins.
We’ve had the anthems and the coundown. Josh Hazlewood, the world’s numero uno T20I men’s bowler has the shiny white ball in his mitts. Let’s play!
Pre-game reading:
The crowd is building in Perth, we’ve got about ten minutes to the first ball. Just enough time to dip a toe into the news pool.
GET IN TOUCH WHY DONTCHA?
Any thoughts, theories, feelings in general? Email me or tweet @Jimbo_Cricket and I’ll be glad to read them.
Nervy times for Australia:
🇦🇺-🇱🇰 tactical thread. Australia’s huge loss v New Zealand has their Semi Final hopes hanging by a thread. If they lose to Sri Lanka today we give them just a 5% chance of progressing. If they win they move from 25% to 37%. Sri Lanka move from 41% to 63% with a win. #T20WorldCup
— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) October 25, 2022
Team news
Adam Zampa is out with covid, Ashton Agar comes in. Pathum Nissanka is back for Sri Lanka.
Australia: David Warner, Aaron Finch (c), Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Matthew Wade (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Agar, Josh Hazlewood
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (wk), Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dasun Shanaka (c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Binura Fernando, Lahiru Kumara.
Australia win the toss and will BOWL first
Preamble
Hello and welcome to Perth* for this T20 World Cup ding dong between Australia and Sri Lanka under lights at the Optus Stadium.
This World Cup has been a belter so far, the qualifying round and the early stages of the Super 12s have had it all – upsets, intrigue, controversy and one of the all-time great T20 games at Melbourne the other day when India and Pakistan duked it out to the final ball and Virat Kohli played one of the innings of his life.
But what of the Aussies? Well they were on the end of a comprehensive shellacking courtesy of their rivals from over ditch. New Zealand, particularly Finn Allen (42 off 16) and Devon Conway (92* off 58) dishing up some humpty to set the green and gold a gulp enducing 201 runs to win. Australia could only muster 111 (Tim Southee 3-6, Mitch Santner 3-31) and New Zealand ran out winners by 89 runs, ending a TWELVE year wait for a men’s international win on Aussie soil.
Wounds to lick then for the hosts and holders as their net run rate took a pounding, they sit on a wobbly NRR of – 4.45 and will be looking to get a win, a resounding one at that, under their belts.
Their opponents, Sri Lanka, will of course have other ideas. Having thrashed Ireland first up they sit pretty on a NRR of 2.467 to the good and after coming through the tricksy qualifiers are into their stride in the tournament. It could be a case of pace v spin as Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood will likely line up against the tweaking trio of Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, and Dhananjaya de Silva. Hasaranga has yet to hit his straps so far but he was player of the tournament last time and is in possession of perhaps the best googly in the game (Sorry Adil Rashid).
Hopefully we are in for another corker, play gets underway at 7pm in Perth/10pm AEDT and 12pm in the UK.
*Jim here with the call, OBOing from a fisherman’s cottage in Port Isaac, just the 9194 miles/ 14796.31 km from Perth. To be fair, the weather looks similar. I’m off to make a cuppa/nail another pasty/crank up some sea shanties and will be back with the news of the toss and teams shortly.