The 14th match of ICC Men’s ODI CWC23 is underway at Lucknow where Australia and Sri Lanka are facing each other. Both teams have lost their initial games in ICC WCW23 and in pursuit of their 1st win of the tournament.
Earlier in the game, SL Skipper, Kusal Mendis chose to bat first on the flat looking track. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka’s poor streak against AUS in ICC CWC continjues as they are unable to post a handsome total for their bowlers to bowl at as they are bowled out for 209 against AUS in the 44th over.
AUS pace attack look off colour in the beginning and SL openers dominated for the first 21 overs. In first 21 overs SL openers don’t give away any wicket but Pat Cummins provides 1st breakthrough in the 22nd over. Only both openers play some brilliant shots against spin and pace but suddenly Sri Lanka’s sudden collapse set AUS into the driving seat for their first win in the CWC23.
AUS employee 4 pacers in their whole bowling line-up besides 2 spinners. Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Marcus Stoinis bowl 26 overs conceding 122 runs with the economy of 4.69 averaging 30.50. Only 2 Aussie pacers succeed in grabbing 2 wickets each. Mitchell Starc gets the wicket of Lahiru Kumara and Dhananjaya de Silva while Cummins removes both openers. Furthermore, all four pacers concede only 16 boundaries in their 26 overs.
Moreover, the pick of the pacers for AUS is the skipper himself who bowls 24 dot deliveries out of his 7 overs. His dot percentage is 57.14 with averaging under 16. He gives away 32 runs only at 4.57 conceding 4 boundaries.
2nd successive pace bowler for AUS is Starc who bowls 37 dot delivers out of his 10 over quota. His dot percentage is 61.67 averaging only 21.5. He concedes 43 runs at 4.3 while allowing 5 boundaries only together with 4 wides.
The Australian pace factory don’t let Sri Lankan batter to free their arms and rotate strikes after the 1st wicket falls. As they collectively bowl 60.26 percent dot deliveries. To be precise, Sri Lankan batters couldn’t manage to hit a six in their entire innings which shows a sheer dominance of AUS spin and pace attack.
