Sri Lanka vs Australia, Match 20 - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Series: ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 Venue: Kennington Oval, London Date & Time: Jun 15, 10:30 AM LOCAL

Finch led the way for Australia with 153 © Getty

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Presentation

Finch: I thought we were a touch short with the new ball. You want to bowl top of off, but when we were getting hit we had to change our plan. It was nice to see Maxwell bowl well. We have been improving each game. The way we dragged it in the middle overs was impressive. Starc is doing the business again in an ICC tournament.

Dimuth Karunaratne, Sri Lanka captain: It was a good wicket. There was some seam movement, but it was still a good batting track. We bowled well in the first 25 overs. Then, Finch and Smith batted really well, but we came back strongly at the death. We got a good start with the bat. We couldn't capitalise and when the middle-order came in, they couldn't capitalize either and really couldn't handle the pressure. The Australians are top-class bowlers, but we have faced them before, and we were missing a game plan against them to be honest. We lost a couple of matches because of the rain. We need to win a couple of matches, and if we can do it, we can definitely be in the top 4. We have got to get to the semi-finals and then take it step by step until the final.

Aaron Finch, Australian captain a.k.a. MoM: It was nice to get a couple of drives away. If my balance is on and get a few drives, that's the key to my batting. A nice wicket. I've been working on keeping my balance from Ball 1 - not losing my balance. We lost a few wickets on the verge of taking the game on too much, but a couple of partnerships took us deep. Smith is really good at finding the gap and rotating the strike - looked up at the scorecard and saw he was on 25 - thought he was on 5. He just hits the ball in the gap, and that's a great skill, especially in the beginning of the innings. It's amazing when Maxi has a free rein like that, he can just go all out. Credit to SL, they executed really well under pressure, otherwise I thought we were definitely getting to 350.

Starc, Finch fashion easy win

There were a few near misses with Pradeep leaving all three stumps to play the good-old number 11 slog. Finally, Cummins forced Pradeep to edge one behind to provide the finishing touches. Disappointing from Sri Lanka as Karunaratne and Kusal had given Sri Lanka a tremendous start. Thirimanne sucked out the momentum and they soon pressed the panic button.

Starc played the decisive role for Australia by ripping through the middle and lower order. Earlier, Finch had composed an enterprising 153.

Starc in that zone

Starc is in that rhythm and in his own zone. When he is bowling with good rhythm, he just rips through the opposition camp. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka are collapsing in a heap. Kusal Mendis, the latest one to be dismissed.

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Finch in fine fettle

Finch has looked in fine touch so far, with his front foot going alongside the line of the ball and the back foot loading up quite quickly. He seems to have worked hard on his weakness of playing across.

Teams:

Australia (Playing XI): Aaron Finch(c), David Warner, Steven Smith, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Kane Richardson, Jason Behrendorff

Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Dimuth Karunaratne(c), Kusal Perera(w), Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Thisara Perera, Isuru Udana, Milinda Siriwardana, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Pradeep

Aaron Finch, Australia captain: Still haven't managed to win a toss. I would have bowled first. A bit of cloud cover. Will swing around initially and we will have to bat well to see that phase through. We haven't done too well particularly with the bat. We have done well in patches in the tournament, but it hasn't come together for us. We need to be disciplined against the new ball. Hopefully no more spin from me today. NCN is stiff and sore from the last game, and Behrendorff will be replacing him.

Karunaratne, SL captain: We'll bowl first. It has been rainy, so the moisture will help seamers initially so we need to take advantage. Pradeep is fit to play, he's been playing really well and has recovered. Siriwardene will play instead of Lakmal. We have trained harder since it has been frustrating with all our games getting rained out. Training hard. That's all we can do.

Toss

Sri Lanka have won a crucial toss and elected to bowl and that could lift the spirits in the camp. I expect the track to do a bit up front. The deck looks quite hard and you expect the trademark Oval bounce. Good news for the island nation is Pradeep is back.

Ground conditions report: "Fresh pitch. Looks fantastic as always. Vauxhall end - very short off-side boundaries. From the Pavilion end, the off-side is about 10m longer, and a 72m straight boundary. An outstanding batting pitch. A green tinge, so some extra bounce and pace, but it'll flatten out. Looks like another 300+ batting wicket to me." - Michael Slater & Baz McCullum.

Prelude:

From the time when de Silva and Dias helped Sri Lanka snatch a thrilling win at the MCG in 1985, Australia and Sri Lanka have developed an intriguing rivalry in limited overs.

Hard to the forget the 1996 World Cup final in Lahore when de Silva put on a masterclass to script the island nation's World Cup triumph with Australia struggling to adjust to the dewy conditions. Throw in a bit of bad blood that tainted Sri Lanka's tour of Australia just before the 1996 World Cup and also the 2007 World Cup final between the two sides.

In short, the history books would point to some nail-biting games and controversy when the two teams have locked horns in ODIs. So can the current Sri Lankan side take some inspiration from the past encounters and upset the apple-cart in their crucial World Cup tie against the men from Down Under at The Oval?

It hasn't been a good campaign for the island nation so far. They came into the tournament on the back of poor form and were thrashed by New Zealand. It was followed by a couple of rained off games and also a narrow win versus Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Australia haven't exactly been at their best but managed to find a way to win against both West Indies and Pakistan. However, they slipped to a loss against one of the tournament favourites, India. Mitchell Starc has been among the wickets while Warner and Finch cracked a fine opening stand versus Pakistan.

Australian pacers would be licking their lips as it is set to be a fresh pitch at The Oval. The opposition camp have already made their views clear about the kind of pitches they have played in the tournament so far.

Toss and teams in a while...