Australia Complete Tense Victory

The mercurial Shane Warne again came to the rescue of the Australian side as Sri Lanka failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity for a series-leveling victory.

At the commencement of Day 3 with 51 runs to win with 3 wickets in hand, Sri Lanka loomed large as slight favorites as Chaminda Vaas continued his impressive batsman ship from the first innings as he moved to an unbeaten 30.

Despite offering a chance to Andrew Symonds on the boundary - who must be under pressure for the next match from Simon Katich - he duly fell to Warne as Justin Langer claimed a neat catch.

Nuwan Zoysa failed to add to his ODI heroics with the bat as key paceman Jason Gillespie found the glove of the tall fast man for keeper Adam Gilchrist to oblige. The left-hander fell for 0.

With first innings entertainment package Muralitharan joining Kashual Lokuarachchi at the wicket the host nation held only slim hope of a now unlikely victory.

Warne's 10th wicket of the match, however, ensures that Australia regained supremacy on Sri Lankan soil - with the leg spinner now 9 wickets shy of Courtney Walsh's all-time record.

Final Scores:

Australia 120 (N Zoysa 4/54, M Muralitharan 4/48)

Sri Lanka 211 (C Vaas 68*, M Muralitharan 43; S Warne 5/65, M Kasprowicz 4/83)

Australia 442 (D Martyn 161, A Gilchrist 144; M Muralitharan 5/173)

Sri Lanka 324 (S Jayasuriya 131, C Vaas 45, T Dilshan 43; S Warne 5/90, J Gillespie 4/76)

Australia won by 27 runs.

Cricket Web Player-of-the-Match: Shane Warne.

Posted by Andre