World Cup 2023 | Zampa Mauls Sri Lanka Before Inglis Steers Australia To Their First Win

Josh Inglis and Marnus Labuschagne took Australia to safety against SL (AP)

Brief Scores: Sri Lanka: 209 all out (43.3 overs) [Kusal Perera: 78 (82), Pathum Nissanka: 61 (67); Adam Zampa 4/47 (8), Pat Cummins 2/32 (7)] lost to Australia: 215-5 (35.2 overs) [Josh Inglis: 58 (59), Mitchell Marsh: 52 (51); Dilshan Madushanka 3/38 (9), Dunith Wellalage 1/53 (9.2)] by five wickets.

Australia instilled some sense of stability into their World Cup 2023 campaign by extinguishing winless Sri Lanka in Lucknow. The win granted Pat Cummins and co. their opening points of the tournament after their initial struggles.

Adam Zampa’s wizardry triggers Sri Lanka’s epic batting downfall

Sri Lankan openers Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Perera overcame Australia’s new-ball attack with brisk half-centuries and staged a 125-run resolute stand at the top before both became Pat Cummins’ two victims from the innings.

As it turned out, Perera’s 78 and Nissanka’s 61 emerged as the biggest denominators of Sri Lanka’s total, as none of the other batters managed to reap the benefits of their sublime opening partnership. In a dramatic turn of events, Sri Lanka lost their final nine wickets for just 52 runs and their final 10 for just 84 as they tumbled from 125-0 to just 209 all out in 43.3 overs.

Adam Zampa became the mastermind of Sri Lanka’s batting meltdown as the ace spinner collected four wickets from just his eight overs of the day. Mitchell Starc also cleaned up Dhananjaya de Silva and Lahiru Kumara with speeding bullets to dust out Kusal Mendis and co. well inside their share of the innings.

Josh Inglis, Labuschagne steer Australia to safety in must-win game

Australia’s run-chase sustained a momentary setback in the team’s fourth over when David Warner and Steve Smith both failed to pick up Sri Lanka’s new-ball speedster Dilshan Madushanka. Their quick entrapments from Madushanka were followed by a rescue act from makeshift opener Mitchell Marsh, who crafted 52 at near run-a-ball and formed a 57-run third-wicket stand with Marnus Labuschagne.

The latter of the two shared 77 additional runs with wicketkeeper Josh Inglis, as the duo took their side to a certain safety after an otherwise tense start. Following both their dismissals at the brink of the finishing line, power-hitters Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis unleashed a chain of big hits and eventually concluded the proceedings with five wickets in the bank and nearly 15 overs intact in the game.

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