Sri Lanka made sure to take advantage of a rookie Australian team in Adelaide on Sunday as they won the second ODI by eight wickets, with Lahiru Thirimanne and Tillakaratne Dilshan doing the scoring.
Australia were all out for 170, as Sri Lanka’s fast bowlers ripped through the line up and only Brad Haddin’s fifty made the score into something defendable. But the visitors made light work of the chase, winning in 40 overs.
Thirimanne was unbeaten at the end of the game on 102 off 132 balls, his maiden ODI century, and Dilshan had made 51 as they put on 137 together for the second wicket.
The start was delayed by rain, and Sri Lanka then won the toss and chose to field first. They got off to a cracking start, removing rookies Aaron Finch and Phil Hughes for single figures, with Hughes unable to repeat his debut century heroics.
Skipper George Bailey and David Hussey then tried to steady the knock and pushed the score from 12 for two to 51 for three, when Bailey was removed by Lasith Malinga for 26. Hussey was one of four batsmen to reach double figures, but was out for 29.
Malinga was the pick of the visiting bowlers, taking three wickets, including two in consecutive balls near the end though he could not complete the hat-trick.
The middle order floundered, as Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera took two wickets each, and only Haddin provided resistance. He made his half century off 67 balls, and was the last man to fall, caught off Ajantha Mendis in the 47th over.
The Aussie bowling line up featured two debutants in Kane Richardson and Ben Cutting, and both were largely ineffectual though Cutting did get Dilshan’s wicket near the end. It was an attack without the Mitchells of Starc and Johnson, and looked light in the aggression department.
The hosts would have been confident of defending the small total after Clint McKay got rid of Upul Tharanga in the first over for a duck, but the veteran Dilshan and newbie Thirimanne soon dispelled such a notion.
Perera was unbeaten on 14 at the end of the game, and made sure to give Thirimanne the strike as he hit the winning runs, and brought up his ton, with a boundary off Glenn Maxwell.
The third ODI takes place on 18 January in Brisbane.
