Sri Lanka vs Australia, 2nd ODI:
Sri Lanka won by 174 runs
SL 281/4 (50)
AUS 107 (24.2)
Sri Lanka skittle Australia on way to record win
Australia launches their bid for the Champions Trophy next week with a worrying lack of all-round form after crashing to a 0-2 one-day series whitewash by Sri Lanka, with today's defeat in the second match a thrashing of historic proportions.
Set a hefty target of 282 on a slow but true pitch at Premadasa Stadium, Australia's re-cast batting was again embarrassed before being bowled out for 107, their lowest 50-over total in Sri Lanka easily surpassing the 162 they managed at Premadasa in the 2002 Champions Trophy.
With seamer Asitha Fernando (3-23) inflicting the early damage before spinners Dunith Wellalage (4-35) and Wanindu Hasaranga (3-23) went to work, Australia were humbled in 24.2 overs, narrowly avoiding their all-time low ODI score against Sri Lanka of 74 at Brisbane 12 years ago.
But their defeat was the heaviest (in terms of runs) they have suffered at the hands of Sri Lanka who wrapped up the game and the two-match series shortly before 4pm this afternoon.
On a pitch where the home team lost just four wickets, with three batters passing 50, no Australia player made it to 30 with the best effort being skipper Steve Smith's 29 before he was pinned lbw.
Sri Lanka Test batter Kusal Mendis (101) and skipper Charith Asalanka (who followed his game-one century with 78no from 66 balls today) showed that batting was far from problematic which suggests deeper issues for Australia as they head to Pakistan on the weekend.
When Smith departed, Australia had crashed to 7-83 having surrendered for wickets for the addition of just four runs in the space of 14 balls in a collapse even more concerning than the top-order implosion.
The fact the last of that quartet was Glenn Maxwell – regarded one of Australia’s premier batters in Asian conditions, who had missed the series opener due to a bout of gastro – only served to underscore the issues the reigning 50-over world champions face with a radically revamped line-up.
Australia go into the ICC's auxiliary 50-over tournament with a 'form' line showing four consecutive defeats against Pakistan (at home) and Sri Lanka in Asian conditions not dissimilar to those they can expect over coming weeks.
A common theme in that string of losses has been the impotency of the top-order, with the best return for the first five wickets being the 101 they posted against Pakistan at Adelaide.
Of particular concern are the returns from opening pair in three of those games Matt Short (scores of 19, 22, 0 and 2) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (13, 7, 2 and 9) which will have selectors pondering how their top-order might look in the Champions Trophy.
Certainly newly crowned Allan Border Medallist Travis Head will open, and he provided a typically breezy run-a-ball 18 today that included three boundaries in the opening over before he fell to a smart catch on the boundary having whipped a lofted shot off his hip.
But apart from Smith and potentially keeper Josh Inglis, uncertainty remains on who will occupy places in a top six that has failed to fire without regular presences David Warner (retired) and Mitchell Marsh (back ailment).
Marnus Labuschagne and Wednesday's top-scorer Alex Carey were both rested from this match as the Australia brains trust opted to provide as much match practice as possible for all members of the squad.
However, the inadequacies that were exposed by Sri Lanka's seamers and spinners raised more questions about the batting approach on slow, spinning decks than the shuffling of personnel provided answers.
Short was trapped lbw swinging across the line, Fraser-McGurk failed to pick Asitha Fernando's 'knuckle ball' which he slapped to mid-off set deep precisely for that stroke, and Inglis had his stumps scattered playing all round a delivery that went on with the arm.
It was a marked contrast to the way Sri Lanka, who failed to qualify for the Champions Trophy and therefore had little to play for other than pride, went about batting today.
Kusal's century – his fifth in ODIs – was his first against Australia in the 50-over format, and some would suggest well deserved given his previous best effort against the men in yellow was his 87 at the same venue three years ago when he was forced to retire hurt with cramps.
The pitch for today's fixture exhibited none of the early seam movement or pace of its neighbouring predecessor from Wednesday, although Sri Lanka's openers didn't find the going much easier.
It was the lack of pace, and the Australia seamers' plan to bowl back of a length and target the stumps, that saw a solitary boundary in the first five overs.
That pressure build-up also brought the wicket of Test opener Pathum Nissanka who charged down the pitch at Aaron Hardie and aimed an ambitious heave over the leg side that yielded only a thin bottom edge on to his stumps.
But as was the case in the recent second Test where he was Sri Lanka's most accomplished batter in both innings, Kusal quickly stamped his class with a glance to the rope from the second delivery he faced.
The right-hander then provided a template of how to craft an innings on the sluggish surface, mixing deft touches with nimble footwork as he moved around the crease to free his hands and find regular boundaries.
Having initially been outscored by opener Nishan Madushka who had been added to the XI in place of Avishka Fernando, Kusal reached his half-century marginally before his batting partner.
He posted the milestone in suitable style, with consecutive boundaries from Australia's fourth spin option Glenn Maxwell that he scored using subtly different sweep shots.
Sri Lanka had made cautious progress against some disciplined bowling to reach 100 in the 22nd over, but Madushka's bid to lift the tempo brought his downfall.
Shortly after posting his second half-century in just his third ODI outing, Madushka top-edged a pull shot from Ben Dwarshuis's slower-ball bouncer and was caught at deep fine leg where Adam Zampa nimbly avoided the boundary rope.
That breakthrough was quickly followed by another, as the highly rated Kamindu Mendis's forgettable recent batting run against Australia in red and white-ball formats brought another low score as he chopped on to his stumps against Sean Abbott.
However, that proved the final bright spot for Australia in the final half of Sri Lanka's innings as Kusal and skipper Asalanka put the new-look bowling line-up to the sword.
Kusal eventually succumbed, shortly after reaching his hundred from 104 deliveries as well as some medical treatment to the lower portion of his left leg, when one of his few mishits landed in the hands of Short at deep mid-wicket.
He and Asalanka had put together a fourth-wicket partnership of 94 from 104 balls to push Sri Lanka towards 250, but it was the skipper's union with Janith Liyanage that crowned an impressive batting effort.
Picking up where he left off in the first game where his 127 proved the difference between the team's otherwise mediocre batting performances, Asalanka launched on assault on Australia attack that had few answers.
After Asalanka reached 50 from 54 balls faced, he and Liyanage bludgeoned 58 from the final five overs as the visitors' death bowling was found wanting and their fielding became increasingly sloppy.
There was some potent symbolism in the innings' final over when Asalanka (on 66) drop-kicked Hardie to long-on where Short jumped in the air as he tried to catch the waist-high offering running to his left and – in addition to dropping the chance – knocked it beyond the rope for six additional runs.
Australia have just over a week to find some more convincing form, with their opening Champions Trophy match against England at Lahore on February 22.
Australia were bowled out for 107 as Sri Lanka romped to victory
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