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| Monday, 23 February 2004 |
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Vaas bowls Sri Lanka to thrilling one-run win Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Dambulla DAMBULLA, Sunday - Chaminda Vaas bowled the over of his life to enable Sri Lanka pull off a hair-raising one-run win over world champions Australia in the second one-day international played at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium here today. Australia chasing Sri Lanka's total of 245 needed eight off the final over with two of their most destructive one-day batsmen Andrew Symonds and Michael Bevan in the middle. But left-arm fast bowler Vaas, a veteran of 230 one-day international caps used his experience to deny the pair those runs with a superb final over that saw Australia score only six runs. Australia eventually finished on 244-5 off 50 overs falling short by one run.
The result meant that Sri Lanka drew 1-all with Australia in the five-match series. Australia won the first match played here on Friday by 84 runs. "I used my experience and bowled all six balls yorkers and it worked out nicely for us," said Vaas after winning the man-of-the-match award with final figures of three wickets for 48. "It was one of the best matches I've played. I have played over 220 matches but I would rate this as the best," he said. "Hayden and Ponting batted really well and we had to break the partnership. We used all the spinners and it didn't work out until Upul (Chandana) came and gave us the breakthrough. I think that was the turning point," said the 30-year-old Vaas. Vaas said that Australia's long batting line up was not a worry for them because towards the end of the match the pitch was spinning a lot. "The spinners were able to pull back the run rate down and that's why we were able to win," he said. A bewildered Symonds and Bevan were left unbeaten on 36 and 24 respectively, having shared an unbroken 52-run partnership for the sixth wicket off 58 balls. Umpire revokes decision Symonds was fortunate to be batting at the end after being reprieved at 10 by umpire Peter Manuel who surprisingly revoked a leg before decision against him and at 24 when Kaluwitharana dropped him off Chandana. It seemed that the umpire was moved into reconsider his decision by the actions of Symonds and non-striker Gilchrist. Symonds showed his bat at the umpire to indicate the ball had hit the bat first and Gilchrist angrily threw down his gloves - two incidents that surprisingly escaped match referee Mike Procter's attention. Procter however praised the action of Sri Lanka skipper Marvan Atapattu for agreeing to the umpire revoking his decision. "I thought the way it was handled out there was terrific," said Proctor afterwards. "The umpire thought through his initial decision and realised he had made a mistake - it was a hugely courageous decision to do what he did," he added. "You also have to take your hat off to Marvan and his team for the manner in which they accepted the decision. Symonds is one of those players who can win a game with a few blows and it was a big call from Marvan at that stage of the game," said Procter. Atapattu said that it was clearly a mistake and that he didn't see anything wrong in the umpire revoking his decision, "We knew it was a wrong decision and obviously we didn't know what to do because it was not a bump catch or anything like that but an lbw decision," said Atapattu. "It was a big nick on to his pad. The sole judge is the umpire. When Manuel asked me whether I had no objection to the decision being changed I was more than happy to call Symonds back. It's only a game after all. We must play it in the correct spirit," said Atapattu. "The end result was what we expected. Having scored 245 we thought it was good score but the way our innings ended wasn't too good. We didn't plan our innings towards the end. We expected more turn on this pitch but I think we can easily play another game on it," he said. Australia looked on course to pull off the match with ease when Hayden and Ponting added 148 off 189 balls for the second wicket after makeshift opener Michael Clarke was dismissed in the first over by Vaas for a duck. Hayden went on to make 93 off 116 balls with five fours and a six and Ponting, 69 off 93 balls with fours and a six. The partnership grew in stature as skipper Atapattu rang the bowling changes to separate them. Leg-spinner Chandana obliged his captain by having Ponting caught at deep square leg by Vaas in the 32nd over. Sri Lanka were able to not only pull back the Australian run rate after Ponting's dismissal but also captured vital wickets as Vaas got rid of Damien Martyn for five and Adam Gilchrist (sent lower down the order) for a duck. Century opening partnership Sri Lanka's established opening pair Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya put together a superb century partnership but the rest of the batting succumbed to the left-arm finger spin of Michael Clarke. Atapattu and Jayasuriya added 121 off 135 balls to provide a solid base for a total in excess of 250, but the introduction of Clarke in the 36th over of the innings spelt disaster for the rest of the batting. The 22-year-old New South Welshman made use of the wearing pitch to capture five wickets for 35 runs in a spell of 7.5 overs as the last seven wickets crashed for 29 runs. From a position of strength at 216-3 in the 43rd over, Sri Lanka were dismissed for 245 off 49.5 overs. It was the second time in this series that the Sri Lanka lower order had succumbed to a left-arm spinner. Brad Hogg who bowls left-arm wrist spin took five 41 on Friday to fashion Australia's 84-run win in the first one-dayer. Sri Lanka won an all-important toss and batted without any hesitation on the same pitch used for the first one-day game. Atapattu and Jayasuriya got the side off to a steady start maintaining a rate of five an over. Atapattu was the aggressor scoring 28 of the first 50 runs with Jayasuriya for once being the passive partner. The left-hander began rather shakily surviving a close lbw decision against Gillespie at 10 and a stumping chance at 19 off Symonds to the third umpire. He scored his first boundary an extra cover drive off Symonds after 32 balls after which he exploded into his full repertoire of strokes taking 13 off that over and a further three fours off an Harvey over. Although Atapattu got a head start it was Jayasuriya who reached his half-century first completing it with a cut for four off Hogg's first ball. It took him 58 balls and he hit seven fours. The partnership was broken by a run out when Atapattu tested his opposite number Ponting's arm at mid-on and was run out by a direct hit for 47. He faced 68 balls and reached the boundary on four occasions. Jayasuriya departed a run later, when be played back to a delivery from Symonds and was trapped lbw in front of the wicket. He scored 55 off 65 balls with seven fours. These dismissals brought two new batsmen to the crease - Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. The pair once again assumed dominance over the Australian bowling sharing 70 off 98 balls for the third wicket. They were cruising along nicely when Jayawardene coming down the track once too often mistimed a drive and was caught at mid-off giving Clarke his first wicket. Jayawardene scored 38 off 63 balls stroking two fours. Sangakkara failed to hit a boundary during his 58-ball knock for 39 before holing out Bevan at long-off. The Sri Lankan innings never recovered from the loss of the top four batsmen and had it not been for Australia conceding 32 extras, the total would have been very much smaller. Kaluwitharana continued his disappointing run with the bat when he was once again run out without scoring. Pushed down in the batting order, Kaluwitharana is certainly short of confidence with his judgements of a run continuing to suffer. Today he hit the ball straight to Ponting at backward point and was run out by yards. Both teams made one change with Sri Lanka replacing fast bowler Nuwan Kulasekara with batsman Russel Arnold, and Australia including Ian Harvey ahead of Brad Williams. SRI LANKA M.S. Atapattu run out 47
S.T. Jayasuriya lbw b Symonds 55
K.C. Sangakkara c Bevan b Harvey 39
D.P.M. Jayawardene c Ponting b Clarke 38
T.M. Dilshan b Clarke 11
R.S. Kaluwitharana run out 0
U.D.U. Chandana c Gilchrist b Clarke 4
R.P. Arnold lbw b Clarke 10
W.P.U.J.C. Vaas c Lee b Clarke 5
H.D.P.K. Dharmasena run out 2
M. Muralitharan not out 2
Extras (b-1, lb-16, nb-7, w-8) 32
TOTAL (all out, 49.5 overs, 210 mins) 245
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-121 (Atapattu), 2-122 (Jayasuriya),
3-192 (Jayawardene), 4-216 (Sangakkara), 5-220
(Kaluwitharana), 6-225 (Chandana), 7-226 (Dilshan),
8-236 (Vaas), 9-242 (Dharmasena), 10-245 (Arnold).
BOWLING: Gillespie 7-0-36-0 (6w),
Lee 6-0-39-0 (7nb, 1w), Harvey 9-0-38-1,
Symonds 10-0-45-1 (1w),
Hogg 10-1-35-0, Clarke 7.5-0-35-5.
AUSTRALIA
M.J. Clarke c Chandana b Vaas 0
M.L. Hayden c Jayawardene b Dharmasena 93
R.T. Ponting c Vaas b Chandana 69
D.R. Martyn c Atapattu b Vaas 5
A. Symonds not out 36
A.C. Gilchrist c and b Vaas 0
M.G. Bevan not out 24
Extras (b-1, lb-7, w-9) 17
TOTAL (5 wkts, 50 overs, 215 mins) 244
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0 (Clarke), 2-148 (Ponting),
3-170 (Martyn), 4-190 (Hayden), 5-192 (Gilchrist).
DID NOT BAT: G.B. Hogg, I.J. Harvey,
J.N. Gillespie, B. Lee.
BOWLING: Vaas 10-0-48-3 (3w), Dilshan 6-0-32-0 (2w),
Dharmasena 10-0-40-1 (2w), Muralitharan 10-0-49-0,
Chandana 9-0-40-1, Arnold 2-0-9-0,
Jayasuriya 3-0-18-0 (2w).
Man of the Match: Chaminda Vaas
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