Australia ease past SL

In what was considered by many to be a dress rehearsal for the final, tournament favourites Australia showed their class with a resounding seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Grenada today.

Having won the toss and elected to bat, Sri Lanka were quickly in deep trouble with Nathan Bracken and Glenn McGrath removing the top three batsmen in the order to reduce the score to 27-3 after 6.4 overs.

It was going to take a superb performance to recover from a start like that against Australia, and the partnership for the fourth wicket between Mahela Jayawardene and Chamara Silva could probably be defined as such. In just over 30 overs together in the middle, the two put on 140 runs, with Jayawardene contributing 72 and Silva 64.

But unfortunately once the partnership was broken with the wicket of Silva being taken by Brad Hogg, Jayawardene soon followed to the same bowler and two new batsmen were at the crease for the return to the attack of the bowlers responsible for the early wickets.

Sri Lanka collapsed to be all out for 226 in the final over of the innings, with Bracken claiming two more wickets to finish with 4-19 and McGrath and Tait finished with two apiece.

226 didn’t look like being enough against a batting lineup of Australia’s quality, and against an attack missing both Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan what was a strong likelihood soon became an inevitability.

Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden put on 76 for the first wicket in just under 12 overs, and when both were removed in quick succession their replacements simply picked up where the openers left off, putting on a quick 47 before Michael Clarke fell for 23.

Then Andrew Symonds walked out to join Ricky Ponting in the middle and together they put the match well and truly beyond doubt with a 106-run stand in just under 20 overs. Both finished with scores in the sixties as the Australians cantered to a seven-wicket victory with 44 balls to spare. There match was finished in style with a six being scored when the scores were level, emphasising the scale of the victory and the gulf in class between the two sides on the day.

Australia, who haven’t lost a World Cup match since the first round in 1999, are strong favourites to win the tournament for an unprecedented third time in a row. If Sri Lanka really are the biggest threats to Ponting’s men this year, it looks most likely after today’s match that we will see a repeat of their perfect undefeated march through the Cup of 2003.

Can anyone even give them a challenge?

Sri Lanka 226 all out
Mahela Jayawardene 72, Chamara Silva 64
Nathan Bracken 4-19, Brad Hogg 2-35

Australia 232-3
Ricky Ponting 66 no, Andrew Symonds 63 no
Russel Arnold 2-20, Malinga Bandara 1-53

Australia won by 7 wickets

Cricket Web Player of the Match: Nathan Bracken 4-19