Cricket World Cup: Australia beats Sri Lanka by five wickets.© AFP
Australia is back in the reckoning at the ODI Cricket World Cup 2023. Going into Monday’s match against Sri Lanka at the Cricket World Cup in Lucknow, the former champions found themselves at the bottom of the points table. However, the Australian cricket team came out in full force against Sri Lanka and registered an easy win, also the first in three matches at this edition. This victory moved Australia to eighth place in the World Cup points table. They are on two points from three matches with a run-rate of -0.734.
India continues to top the World Cup points table, while New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan are the other top four teams.
Adam Zampa, Josh Inglis and Mitchell Marsh performed when their team needed them most as Australia breathed life into their floundering World Cup campaign with a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka on Monday.
Leg-spinner Zampa claimed four wickets as Australia defeated Sri Lanka for 209 despite half-centuries by Kusal Perera (78) and Pathum Nissanka (61).
Chasing a score of over 300, Sri Lanka faced a bizarre batting collapse, losing 10 wickets for 84 runs.
Inglis (58), who scored his maiden World Cup fifty, Marsh (52) and Marnus Labuschagne (40) then did the heavy lifting with the bat as Australia cleared the target in 35.2 overs, giving a solid boost to their net run rate.
While Australia rose to eighth place with their first win of the tournament, the loss seriously dented Sri Lanka’s chances of progressing to the semi-finals as the country sits in ninth place with three defeats from as many matches.
Topics mentioned in this article
