Photo Credit: BCCI
Adam Zampa turned the game for Australia in the eyes of his skipper Aaron Finch after a seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Dubai.
The Aussies are now two from two at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, but they looked like they were in for a mammoth chase when Charith Asalanka and Kusal Perera started teeing off early.
The pair took Sri Lanka to 78 for one inside ten overs when Zampa struck. The spinner had already had one lbw shout turned down, but the pressure he imposed paid off as Asalanka holed out to Steve Smith.
He added the wicket of the dangerous Avishka Fernando in his next over and finished with figures of two for 12, good enough to be named Player of the Match despite David Warner’s 65 in the chase, a decision even Finch agreed was correct.
The Australian skipper said: “As a batter, I love batters getting [Player of the Match] but I think when you’re looking at the impact on a game, Zamps was terrific tonight. On the back of a really good powerplay from Sri Lanka, the way that he controlled the game, especially from that bottom end where the right-handers had a short boundary to hit to, he was fantastic.
“He got big wickets. That was a world-class performance from him.”
With two wins, Australia now take on England, the other unbeaten side in Group 1, knowing that a win would take them to the brink of the semi-finals.
And Finch, who made a quickfire 37 in the comfortable chase of 155, knows that it will be a big ask against the reigning 50-over world champions.
He added: “It’s always a great battle [against England]. We’re looking forward to it. They’ve probably been the form side in white-ball cricket for a long time. We love playing them and it’ll be an entertaining game.”
After winning all their first-round matches, and then getting the better of Bangladesh in the opening Super 12 match, Sri Lanka tasted defeat for the first time.
The frustration will come from letting a good position slip, with Perera and Asalanka having put the team in a strong position batting first.
And skipper Dasun Shanaka admitted that his team had allowed the momentum of the game to swing away from them after a perfect start.
He said: “We got the start that we really needed but in the middle phase we were not able to capitalise. We could have done a little well in the middle period, missing out really cost us. It’s a bit of a concern. The other day, Asalanka took us home. The set batsman needs to take us home. I felt slightly we were 25-30 runs short on that wicket.
“We know how good those two batsmen are in world cricket. We have to bowl well and contain them in the powerplay and we couldn’t do that. In the coming games we should capitalize in the powerplay with the ball. The Sharjah wicket, we’ve played two games there so we have some good plans and we should come well in the next game.”
