The 3-day tour match played with a pink ball at the Blundstone Arena ended in a draw with a below par performance by the touring Sri Lankans. The tourists were reeling on 131/6 in their 2nd innings when the game was stopped.
Starting the final day’s play 239 runs ahead of the Sri Lankans, Australians Marnus Labuschagne and Kurtis Paterson went on to add 35 more runs before Labuschagne was dismissed for 50 by Lahiru Kumara. It was Lahiru Kumara’s first wicket of the tour as he didn’t bowl in the 1st innings of the game. The 50 scored by Lanuschagne, was also a much needed boost to him after a poor outing in the 1st innings.
Sri Lanka fall behind in tour game
The second day’s play of the 3-day tour match between the Australia XI..
Will Pucovski, who then came to bat remained unbeaten on 33 when the hosts declared their innings on 224/3. Patterson on the other hand went on to score his 2nd century of the match as he steered along Pucovski, who is named in the 13-man Australia squad for the 1st Test, for an unbeaten 4th wicket stand of 90.
Bulk of the bowling for Sri Lanka on day 3 was done by Lahiru Kumara and Lakshan Sandakan who ended with economy rates above 3 in the 14 overs they bowled apiece. A total of 9 bowlers were tried out by the Sri Lanka including the slow medium pace bowlers, Lahiru Thirimanne and Dimuth Karunaratne.
The Sri Lankan 2nd innings was just another failure as no one managed to go past the 50-run mark. Lahiru Thirimanne’s unbeaten innings was the only positive as he batted through the 51 overs Sri Lanka faced, remaining unbeaten on 46. Roshen Silva also fought hard for his 64-ball boundary-less 23 runs before he retired from batting in the innings.
Hazlewood ruled out of Sri Lanka Tests due to back injury
Josh Hazlewood, the Australian fast bowler, was ruled out of the upcoming..
Niroshan Dickwella batted at number 3 instead of Dinesh Chandimal, who didn’t walk out to bat in the 2nd innings, and scored 19 runs with boundaries while Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Perera and Sadeera Samarawickrama failed to cross the 10-run mark as they were surprisingly dismissed to left-arm spinner Jon Holland, who went to take 4 wickets. Ever-reliable opener, Dimuth Karunaratne made just 2 runs in the 2nd innings to follow his 44 runs, which he made in the 1st innings.
Uncapped batsman Kurtis Patterson was named Man of the Match for his twin centuries while none of the Sri Lankans came with a significant performance throughout the 3 days.
The 1st Test between Sri Lanka and Australia will kick-start on the 24th of this month at the Gabba in Brisbane as a day/night encounter.
Read: CA offer free Test tickets to BBL fans affected by power outage
