August 10, 2011

Australians were trapped in Ajantha Mendis Jinx

Yesterday, Srilanka and Australia played their second Twenty20 match at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy, Sri Lanka. The toss was won by the Srilankans and they chose to bat first.

Mahela Jayawardena and Tillakaratne Dilshan opened the batting innings for Srilanka. Tillakaratne Dilshan was unsuccessful again as he got out after scoring 4 runs only. Mahela Jayawardena batted well till 19.2 over and got out scoring 86 runs in 63 deliveries that included 12 fours and 1 six. Rest other players did not make it big, they just contributed few runs here and there. Finally Srilanka managed to put up a total score of 157 runs on board in 20 overs loosing 9 wickets (SL - 157/9, 20 over). Brett Lee and John Hastings took 3 wickets each.

Australia needed 158 runs to win the match and start the innings with the openers Shane Watson and David Warner. Both of the started pretty well and the start given by Shane Watson was outstanding. For the first 6 overs, Shane Watson belted the bowlers hitting the ball in all the corners of the ground. He scored 57 runs in just 24 deliveries that included 6 fours and 5 sixes. He got out in Ajantha Mendis delivery by giving a straight catch to Thisara Perera. After the fall of Shane Watson, Australians lost 3 more wickets in just 3 runs. After this, Australian skipper Cameron White took the charge along with Steven Smith and were back on track. Srilankans started to struggle a lot in getting a wicket. Finally Ajantha Mendis struck back with his 4th wicket and broke the partnership. After this, they were back on track and managed to keep pressure on the Australians till the end of the innings. Australia could put up a total of 149 runs only with the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs (AUS - 149/9, 20 over). Ajantha Mendis was the highest wicket taker in the match. He also created the world record in T20 history by taking 6 wickets and the first Srilankan to get 5 wickets in a match.

Srilanka won the match by 8 runs. Man of the match was Ajantha Mendis for taking 6 wickets and creating a new T20 world record.

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