Brave Pathum Leads record run chase

By Shehan Daniel reporting from R. Premadasa Stadium

He may have been overshadowed in the early stages of his innings, but Pathum Nissanka went on to make the pivotal contribution in Sri Lanka’s six-wicket win over Australia yesterday, a result that put them a game up in their five-match series.

Sri Lanka began their run chase needing to better a record almost a decade old, when India scored 288 to beat Sri Lanka in July 2012, and so well measured was the approach that it never seemed like the home team would fail in their attempt.

At every stage, the hosts were comparatively ahead of where the Australians had been in their innings – at the end of the first Powerplay, Sri Lanka were seven runs to the better, by the halfway stage that advantage had grown to 25 and when they reached the target they had an over and a half to spare.

A key to that was the foundation of Nissanka’s innings, his first century in the format, adding to his already impressive run in a still young ODI career in which nearly half his innings have resulted in half-centuries.

But as is the case with most maiden centuries, yesterday’s was the best exhibition of his talent, unfazed by the slow conditions and the above par target, growing in confidence and unfurling some outstanding batsmanship that was non-existentin his innings.

By the time Nissanka scored his first boundary, Niroshan Dicwkella already had five, racing to 22 off 20 balls – the former’s score still in single digits. His second boundary took another 38 deliveries, taking him to 39 off 56 balls, bringing up his fifty nine balls later.

That he could take such a non-aggressive approach was largely due to the contribution of Kusal Mendis, who was unfortunate to miss out on a century off his own, retired hurt on 87 in 85 balls.

The 170-run partnership between the two was so definitive in this game, that they surpassed the previous best second-wicket partnership for Sri Lanka against Australia.

At Mendis’s retirement, Sri Lanka well and truly had the chase under control, needing 80 off 12 overs. and Dhananjaya de Silva went about quickly in further reducing that, scoring four boundaries and racing to 21 in 12 balls.

Nissanka then brought out his own creativity, scoring boundaries with an inside out cover drive, a hard sweep through midwicket, a paddle to fine leg, and a one-knee slog sweep for six over cow corner – a cathartic release for all he had withheld through the earlier in his innings.

There was time for a small, but eventually insignificant, wobble at the end, with Jhye Richardson dismissing Nissanka for 137 and captain Dasun Shanaka in the 48th over, though Charith Asalanka took Sri Lanka over the line in the next over.

Australia’s middle order trio of Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green plundered 98 runs off the final ten overs of their innings, building on the good work of Aaron Finch and Alex Carey, to post a challenging score of 291.

While the slow nature of the R Premadasa pitch meant Sri Lanka’s spinners were able to control much of the innings, the Australians batsmen provided an equal counter punch, holding back on the rashness and aggression as boundaries appeared few and far between.
In the 30 overs immediately after the first Powerplay, Sri Lanka gave away just two sixes and seven boundaries – three of those against the pace of Chamika Karunaratne.

But in the passage of play the Australians chose not to force the issue, they built two key middle order partnerships, ensuring a more than useful number of wickets in hand down the final stretch.

And that indeed proved more than useful, with their final 10 over push instigated by Glenn Maxwell, and carried forward by Head in an unbroken seventh-wicket partnership with Green.

This included a take down of the young Dunith Wellalage, the 19-year-old once again showing promise, bravery and maturity well beyond his years, with his otherwise excellent returns of 3 for 35 in nine overs, only blotted by Head scoring three sixes off the spinner’s final over – the penultimate over of the innings, which went for 21 runs.  

Leg spinner Jeffrey Vandersay, once considered Sri Lanka’s main leg-spin option before being derailed by inconsistencies in selection and his own performance, along with the emergence of Wanindu Hasaranga, put in one of his best displays in ODI cricket, returning figures of 3 for 49 in his 10 overs.

His second spell, of three overs, was particularly impressive, accounting for the wickets of Marnus Labuschagne and Finch, both victims of vicious leg-spinners pitching in and around leg stump – one drawing Labuschagne forward to be stumped for 29, and the other finding the edge of Finch for Dhananjaya de Silva to acrobatically hold on at first slip.  

Finch and Labuschagne had struck together a partnership of 69, after Mitchell Marsh was caught at cover for 10, and their dismissals within five runs of each other would have come as encouragement for the home team.

However, Carey and Head responded with a 72-run stand, that slowly grew in quantity of runs and importance in context of the innings.
The sweep-happy Carey was trapped leg before wicket for 49, denied what was a well-deserved half-century, a fate that Head didn’t allow for himself, reaching his fifty in 59 balls.

Maxwell, like only Maxwell can, added some impetus through the back end of the innings, the only Australian batsman to score at more than a run a ball for 33 off 18 balls.

He fell to Vandersay, with the effervescent Wellalage taking a well-judged catch. But that did nothing to stem the Australian seventh-wicket pair that rampaged to what should have been a safe total to defend.