Warner steers Australia to series sweep of Sri Lanka
MELBOURNE, (Reuters) - David Warner capped a brilliant return to form on home soil with a third successive half-century to fire Australia to a seven-wicket victory and a 3-0 series sweep of Sri Lanka in Melbourne yesterday.
Having had a miserable Ashes in England, the hard-hitting lefthander continued his spring-time renaissance with an unbeaten 57 as Australia cruised past Sri Lanka's modest total of 142 for six in 17.4 overs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
It was Warner's third unbeaten knock of the one-sided series, having scored 100 in the opener in Adelaide and 60 at the Gabba on Wednesday.
Warner whipped Nuwan Pradeep off his pads for four to bring up the winning runs, a fitting finish to his first international series at home since serving a 12-month ban for ball-tampering.
"On a personal front, it's good to come out here and churn some runs out," Warner said after receiving both the player-of-the-match and playerof-the-series awards.
"It's good to get out in the middle and hit some out of the middle. Hopefully I can keep continuing this form over summer."
Warner finished the series with 217 runs at a stratospheric average of
Scoreboard
Australia win by 7 wickets Ashton Agar 4 0 24 0 6.00
Sri Lanka 1st innings Adam Zampa 4 0 30 0 7.50 Kusal Mendis c Ben McDermott Australia 1st innings b Kane Richardson Aaron Finch c Shehan Jayasuriya Niroshan Dickwella c Ben b Lahiru Kumara 37 McDermott b Mitchell Starc David Warner Not Out 57 Kusal Perera c Ashton Turner Steven Smith c Lakshan Sandakan b Pat Cummins b Nuwan Pradeep 13 Avishka Fernando c Ben Ben McDermott lbw McDermott b Pat Cummins Lasith Malinga 5 Oshada Fernando c Alex Carey Ashton Turner Not Out 22 b Kane Richardson Extras 0b 5lb 0nb 0pen 6w 11 Shehan Jayasuriya Total (17.4 overs) 145-3 b Mitchell Starc 12 Fall of Wickets : 1-69 Finch, 2-85 Bhanuka Rajapaksa Not Out 17 Smith, 3-99 McDermott Did Not Lasith Malinga Not Out 8 Bat : Carey, Agar, Cummins, Starc,
Extras 0b 8lb 0nb 0pen 1w 9 Richardson, Zampa
Total (20.0 overs) 142-6 Bowling Ov Md Rn Wk Econ Ex Fall of Wickets : 1-3 Dickwella, 233 Lasith Malinga 4 0 22 1 5.50 1w Mendis, 3-76 Fernando, 4-99 Lahiru Kumara 4 0 49 1 12.25 3w Fernando, 5-110 Perera, 6-132 Nuwan Pradeep 3.4 0 20 1 5.45 2w Jayasuriya Did Not Bat : Sandakan, Shehan Jayasuriya 2 0 24 0 12.00 Fernando, Kumara Lakshan Sandakan 4 0 25 0 6.25
Bowling Ov Md Rn Wk Econ Ex Umpire Shawn Craig Mitchell Starc 4 0 32 2 8.00 1w Umpire Paul Wilson Video Gerard Kane Richardson 4 0 25 2 6.25 Abood
Pat Cummins 4 0 23 2 5.75 Match Referee Javagal Srinath 13 0 57 20 6
147.00 and now heads into the next three-match T20 tournament against Pakistan in ominous form.
Confined to paltry totals of 99 and 117 in the opening two matches, Sri Lanka's batsmen had a slightly better showing in Melbourne, with Kusal
Perera managing 57 off 45 balls.
But with spearhead Mitchell Starc back in the home side after missing the Gabba match to attend a family wedding, Australia's pacemen were again dominant.
MELBOURNE, (Reuters) - Former captain Steve Waugh, an alumni of the “tough school” of Australian cricket, has praised allrounder Glenn Maxwell for having the courage to seek treatment for a mental health issue.
Maxwell was ruled out of the Australian team indefinitely on Thursday after confiding in coach Justin Langer about his health issues ahead of a T20 match against Sri Lanka in Adelaide.
“I think it’s a courageous decision and one that should be applauded,” Waugh told reporters on Friday of Maxwell’s break from the team.
“It’s a high-pressure situation, professional sport, and people have got outside pressures and things happening in life just like normal people. Sometimes it becomes a bit too much.”
Waugh, who led a series of uncompromising teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s, is renowned for unabashedly championing “mental disintegration”, Australia’s tactic of putting opposition players off their games through targeted sledging.
He freely admitted that speaking about a mental health issue was taboo during his playing days.
“It was a tough school back then, and I look at a lot of players I played with and I think back now, and maybe they had mental issues,” said the 54-year-old.