Cummins four for reduces Sri Lanka to 220 for nine

Rex Clementine at Pallekele

With their attack severely depleted due to a series of injuries, Australia’s Test captain Pat Cummins rose to the occasion as he took four wickets to reduce Sri Lanka to 220 for nine in the second ODI at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

Australia were forced to call up Matthew Kuhnemann and Travis Head from Hambantota where they were representing Australia ‘A’ in an unofficial Test match after Marcus Stoinis and Ashton Agar were injured. Stoinis, who suffered a side strain, has gone back to Australia while Agar is remaining with the squad with the hope of recovering also from a side strain that he picked up during the first ODI.

Mitchell Starc (finger) and Mitchell Marsh (calf) are also injured and they are hoping to get fit by for the Colombo leg of the ODI series. Kane Richardson (hamstring) and Sean Abbott (finger) have returned to Australia after being injured during the tour.

Sri Lanka too suffered a huge blow when leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga was ruled out of at least one game. He was replaced by Jeffrey Vandersay yesterday while Australia did three changes bringing in Head, Kuhnemann and Mitchell Swepson.

Left-arm orthodox spinner Kuhnemann was on debut shared the new ball with Josh Hazlewood. His maiden international wicket was Pathum Nissanka, who nicked one to wicketkeeper Alex Carey. He made 14.

The openers, who had added 115 runs in the first game failed to get going as Cummins dismissed Danushka Gunathilaka for 18.

Cummins ended with four for 34 as Sri Lanka’s innings was interrupted by rain with 14 deliveries remaining.

Sri Lanka kept losing wickets at regular intervals and never threatened to post a competitive total after being inserted by Australia.

A 61 run stand for the third wicket between Kusal Mendis (36) and Dhananjaya de Silva (34) was the highest partnership in the Sri Lankan innings. Dhananjaya in particular was playing spin well and captain Aaron Finch introduced pace to unsettle the batsman. He was dropped on 30 by Head at deep mid-wicket. The fielder had travelled some 225 kilometers all the way from Hambantota the previous night in order to feature in the game.

The reprieve didn’t cost Australia much as Cummins had Dhananjaya caught behind in the next over. Several Sri Lankan batsmen got starts but none were able to go onto capitalize as a top score of 36 runs in the innings proves it.