Rob Young from United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Short and sweet today.
Well, well, well, what do we have here? Just when you thought Travis Head played a match winning knock, Pathum Nissanka comes along and schools everyone as to what a match winning knock actually looks like. Not to mention Kusul Mendis’ wonderful innings which only ended with him being forced to retire hurt. The Aussies clearly needed another 30 runs or so, which in hindsight makes their steady as she goes approach in the middle overs look a little our previous governments approach to climate change – “we’ll sort it out when it gets really hot”.
What was most glaring though was the bowling unit’s inability to take wickets when it mattered. Usually we’re critiquing a collapsing middle order when the Australians lose so while it’s good to see a better performance in that area, it’s unfortunate that the bowling unit couldn’t answer the questions that the Sri Lankans were throwing at them like burning potatoes (if you’ve not encountered one, trust me, they’re nasty).
Sure the Aussies nearly have a team’s worth of injured players but one wonders what they need to do in order to better compete against a team that has their number. I’d like Head (oh stop it) opening or maybe at 3 for starters. Green didn’t have time to get into his innings so there’s an argument for pushing him up in my book.
Regardless of all that, one thing is certain – this Sri Lankan team is HAWT!
