Asalanka's rescue act turns tables on undermanned Aussies

Australia's revamped ODI line-up was given a taste of the trials that might await at the Champions Trophy after a dream start with the ball turned into a batting nightmare that brought a 49-run loss to Sri Lanka in the first of two one-dayers.

As Sri Lanka celebrated Navam Full Moon Poya Day – the second most important religious holiday for the island's Buddhists – they also lauded captain Charith Asalanka's match-winning 127 from 136 balls that dragged his team back from the abyss.

After Australia's new-look bowling outfit tore through the top half of Sri Lanka's batting, Asalanka lifted them to a total of 214 before Australia's batting succumbed to be rolled out for 165 from 33.5 overs with only two players passing 20.

To crown the finest of his 72 ODIs to date, Asalanka followed his innings of defiance then power with the wicket of Australia's most threatening batter Alex Carey, who holed out to the skipper's off-spin having scored 41 from 38 deliveries.

But in a game of remarkable symmetry between the two teams with both bat and ball, it was Asalanka's brilliance after the top half of Sri Lanka's batting had succumbed for 55 that proved the point of difference.

And when he removed Carey to leave Australia 6-85 and in disarray, he stood mid-pitch with arms raised in triumph as he was swamped by teammates and acclaim rained down from the grandstands.

While the result counted for little in a two-match series that essentially serves as a warm-up for Australia's impending Pakistan trip – Sri Lanka did not qualify for the Champions Trophy – it provided the visitors with a useful look at conditions they might encounter.

The 32C heat and 60 per cent humidity in Colombo today will be more extreme than weather that awaits in Lahore where Australia plays their tournament opener against England on February 22, but there could be some similarities in the playing surfaces.

Both team's seamers proved a handful when the ball was new and hard, before Sri Lanka's spinners proved the difference as they accounted for an Australia middle-order that had come pretty much direct from the Test format.

The interesting element for the Australia selectors was that today's best performers were players who would not be automatic choices in a Champions Trophy starting XI.

The only top-order batter to reach 20, Carey is likely in a duel with Test teammate Marnus Labuschagne for the final specialist batter role assuming Josh Inglis retains his role as preferred ODI keeper and Travis Head (rested today) also returns.

Aaron Hardie impressed as Spencer Johnson's new- ball partner with two early breakthroughs and final figures of 2-13 from six overs and an innings-low economy rate of 2.16 runs per over.

Conditions in Pakistan might dictate whether Hardie – who second-top scored with 32 - plays alongside fellow allrounder Glenn Maxwell who sat out today's game as he recovers from a recent bout of gastro.

And renowned T20 quick Nathan Ellis aired his credentials by utilising the variations that have proved so effective in the shorter format when bowling with the older ball today, snaring a tidy 2-23 from nine overs sent down mostly when Asalanka was on the charge.

As exemplified by skipper Steve Smith who added to his voluminous highlights reel of catches with three stunning grabs in Sri Lanka's early collapse, Australia appeared to have all in hand after the hosts chose to bat first with the mid-morning start.

That proved a questionable call as they crashed to 5-55 in the fifteenth and the day's festive feel threatened to become a fizzer amid concerns the game might be done before afternoon arrived.

But in concert with stoic seamer Eshan Malinga playing the Jack Leach role to Asalanka's Ben Stokes impersonation, Sri Lanka transformed from on the ropes to on the cusp in the space of a few hours.

In a knock of two distinct parts, the skipper's first 50 runs came in comparatively measured and contained just six boundaries as wickets fell regularly around him.

His next 77 arrived from just 65 balls faced and was laced with a further eight fours plus five sweetly struck blows that cleared the rope, and each one of those brought increasingly louder cheers from the crowd that huddled into the Premadasa's few shady areas.

Since the introduction of 50-over internationals more than half a century ago, only 19 other individual players have contributed a greater proportion of their team's total than Asalanka's 59.34 per cent today.

He was also singlehandedly responsible for Sri Lanka staging the best fightback after finding themselves five-down for 55 or less in an ODI against Australia since West Indies lifted themselves from 5-45 to reach 220 at the SCG in the summer of 2012-13.

Asalanka's lone hand had not only kept his team in the hunt, they quickly adopted the role of hunter as Australia suffered the same sort of top-order implosion on a pitch that surprisingly offered bounce and seam movement when the ball was new.

As was the case for the home team. Australia's first wicket fell in the opening over when Matthew Short was pinned lbw for a second-ball duck and there followed a regular clatter of others as the visitors wilted in the heat.

Jake Fraser-McGurk never looked comfortable in scoring two from nine deliveries before bunting a return catch, Cooper Connolly's elevation to number three brought just three runs and more trouble against spin, and even Smith was reduced to mere mortality.

After consecutive centuries in the preceding Tests, Smith played some typically deft strokes until he tried to belt left-arm orthodox spinner Dunith Wellalage over mid wicket and was bowled.

That sent the crowd into a euphoric state, exceeded only by Asalanka's symbolic removal of Carey after Labuschagne had been adjudged lbw (for 15 off 27 balls) which reduced Australia to 6-85 and in even more dire strife than Sri Lanka experienced this morning.

Having lost both openers – Pathum Nissanka (4) and Avishka Fernando (1) – inside the first two overs, Sri Lanka quickly spiralled into serious trouble as Test batters Kusal Mendis and Kamindu Mendis also succumbed quickly.

Kusal had been his team's best-performed player in the second Test defeat at Galle with half centuries in both innings but he edged to slip fending with feet planted after posting four boundaries in his 17-ball stay.

In keeping with his modest contributions during the preceding Tests, Kamindu was even more profligate when he whipped a ball off his hip only to see Fraser-McGurk latch on to the waist-high chance diving to his right.

By this stage, Sri Lanka were 4-31 and the holiday mood that had begun to diffuse dimmed even further Janith Liyanage became the second batter to fall victim to Smith's catching skills as he scooped up a low chance at second slip.

But as the ball began to lose its hardness and Asalanka started to find his flow, the unlikely recovery took shape.

In consecutive blows against Abbott that yielded boundaries with a nonchalant flick through mid-wicket and a smoking drive past cover point, Asalanka took his team beyond a couple of unwanted milestones.

They avoided their lowest-ever ODI total (43 against South Africa at Paarl in 2012) and their smallest 50-over innings on home soil (50 against India at Premadasa in the 2023 Asia Cup) as Wellalage provided counter-punching support.

Wellalage landed the first six of the innings when he sliced a free hit over Australia's four-man slips cordon after Abbott overstepped.

The Australia seamer's next over brought three more boundaries as Sri Lanka's last recognised batting pair carried the total past 100 with a 67-run partnership (from 69 balls) before Smith again intervened.

His third catch was pick of the day's crop – an edge from Wellalage that hit high on the past and flew past keeper Carey's left thigh before Smith instinctively threw out his right mitt while tumbling to the turf and snared it as if snatching an annoying mosquito.

Carey's reaction spoke volumes, given he was also stationed at close quarters during Smith's record-breaking efforts in the Test series, as he simply stood with arms aloft and looking to the skies in silent proclamation of his skipper's genius.

But it was the rival captain who became the story in the second half of Sri Lanka's innings.

Despite being troubled by back soreness that required occasional stints laying prostrate on the turf to stretch it out, and painful cramps in his hands from gripping the bat in the enervating heat, the 27-year-old produced a knock worthy of the national occasion.

Asalanka had been appointed Sri Lanka's ODI skipper last July to replace Kusal Mendis, but the nuggety left-hander's previous three 50-over centuries paled alongside today's statement.

He reached his 50 from 71 balls faced in the 30th over of the innings.

But he had not added to that total when tailenders Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana departed in successive overs from Nathan Ellis to leave Sri Lanka teetering at 8-135.

That was when Asalanka found unlikely support from number 10 Malinga who remained one not out at innings end, having survived more than an hour and faced 26 deliveries for his single.

When Asalanka was the ninth man dismissed, lifting a low full toss from Abbott to the mid-wicket boundary, the home fans who had found little to cheer in the opening hour were on their feet and full of holiday hope.

That mood only became more celebratory as Sri Lanka's bowlers applied the same level of early squeeze inflicted upon their batters, while Australia found themselves in desperate need of someone to produce an innings of Asalanka-style defiance.

Australia XI: Matt Short, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cooper Connolly, Steve Smith (c), Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey (wk), Aaron Hardie, Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Spencer Johnson, Adam Zampa

 

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kamindu Mendis, Charith Asalanka (c), Janith Liyanage, Dunith Wellalage, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Eshan Malinga, Asitha Fernando 

Qantas Tour of Sri Lanka

First ODI: Sri Lanka won by 49 runs

Second ODI: February 14, Colombo (3:30pm AEDT)

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Spencer Johnson, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Matt Short, Adam Zampa

Sri Lanka squad: Charith Asalanka (c), Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Kamindu Mendis, Janith Liyanage, Nishan Madushka, Nuwanidu Fernando, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Dunith Wellalage, Jeffrey Vandersay, Asitha Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Mohamed Shiraz, Eshan Malinga