Sri Lanka registered a thrilling 4-run victory over Australia in the fourth ODI at Colombo on Tuesday (June 21) to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
Invited to bat first, the hosts rode on Charith Asalanka’s maiden ODI ton (110 off 106 balls) and Dhananjaya de Silva’s 61-ball 60 to post 258 on the board.
In reply, David Warner kept the visitors on the track despite wickets tumbling from the other end. The southpaw displayed his fine batting skills to combat Sri Lanka’s bowling, primarily dominated by spin. He was cruising towards his 19th ODI ton but fell short off just one run after getting stumped in the 38th over.
Australia were in the chase till the last over as the match went down to the wire. The tourists needed 19 off the final over bowled by Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka. Australia’s No.10 batter Matthew Kuhnemann gave the home team a scare by hitting three boundaries to bring the equation down to five off one ball.
However, Shanaka held his nerves and bowled a slower delivery to get rid of Kuhnemann on the final ball, bundling out Australia for 254 to seal the match as well as the series.
Sri Lankan cricket fraternity was delighted after the home team's series-clinching victory over the Aussies and they took to Twitter to rejoice the success.
Here are the reactions:
