RAIN CANCELS MATCH
The ODI match played between Australia and Sri Lanka at Sydney Cricket Ground has been abandoned due to rain.
The match was stopped due to rain when the fourth over was being bowled in the Sri Lankan innings. The rain stopped later on, but, the outfield was not in the right condition for the play to start.
Earlier, the skipper of Australia, Michael Clarke, won the toss and decided to bat. Even after the poor performance in the last match, the Australian team management decided to go with the same playing XI.
Australia was again off to a poor start and the first wicket was down when only four runs were on the board. Phil Hughes was the first man to be dismissed. It was again Kulasekara who gave Australia the early blow.
David Warner was looking in good form. He played some aggressive shots and tried to disturb the rhythm of the Sri Lankan bowlers. Clarke also hit a couple of boundaries and it seemed that these two would put up a big partnership. But, Kulasekara didn’t let that happen. He trapped Clarke in front of the stumps with a beautiful in swinger and gave Australia another blow.
David Hussey also departed soon and Australia was in trouble at 53 for 3. Matthew Wade and George Bailey got good starts, but, they didn’t manage to capitalize on their starts and threw their wickets away by playing poor shots.
It seemed that Australia would get bowled out before 200, but, Mitchell Starc again gave valuable contribution with the bat and took his team past 200. He played a superb inning of 52 runs off just 37 balls with 7 hits to the fence.
At the end of 50 overs, the score of the Australian team was 222 runs for the loss of 9 wickets.
When the score of the Sri Lankan team was 14 for no loss in reply, the rain started coming down and the umpires stopped the match. When the rain stopped, the umpires inspected the field and didn’t found the field dry enough for the play to start. So, they decided to abandon the match.
