Key events
WICKET! Kusal Mendis c Connolly b Stoinis 51 (Sri Lanka 105-2)
You can hear a pin drop in Pallekele as Kusal Mendis is caught in the deep! The 97 run partnership is broken, Stoinis the man to get the wicket again.
12th over: Sri Lanka 104-1 (Nissanka 50, K Mendis 51) Glenn Maxwell into the attack with his assortment of spinning dib-dabs. Mendis clips a single to go to a classy half century. The crowd cheers and his side applaud in the dugout. Can he get the job done?
Nissanka sweeps for a brace and then clips the single to bring himself a fifty. More cheers, more nervous glances from Australia.
11th over: Sri Lanka 98-1 (Nissanka 46, K Mendis 49) Nathan Ellis scorches a yorker onto Nissanka’s toe. It’s an absolute foot crusher and the batter needs some attention, thankfully for him it was heading down leg and not onto middle stump. After some magic spray the batter is good to go, Ellis completes a tidy over, just five runs off it. Australia need to break this partnership pronto though.
10th over: Sri Lanka 93-1 (Nissanka 44, K Mendis 46) Ten overs done. Tension mounting. Eight runs off the over.
Sri Lanka need 89 from 60 balls to qualify for the Super 8s and more or less knock Australia out.
9th over: Sri Lanka 85-1 (Nissanka 42, K Mendis 40) Mendis is ticking, he drives over extra cover for four and then sweeps with precision behind square for another. In the middle of it he survive a tight lbw call that would have stayed umpires call on height, clipping the bails and Australia opt not to review.
8th over: Sri Lanka 76-1 (Nissanka 41, K Mendis 32) Zampa can’t get the breakthrough and also can’t stem the runs! Mendis bookends the over with boundaries whistled through the smallest of gaps at midwicket. Game well and truly on.
7th over: Sri Lanka 66-1 (Nissanka 40, K Mendis 23) Decent over from Connolly, just five singles worked off it as Australia look to put the squeeze on. Here comes Adam Zampa, big moment in the game coming up.
6th over: Sri Lanka 60-1 (Nissanka 38, K Mendis 20) End of the Powerplay and Sri Lanka are up with the rate, they are going at ten an over with Nissanka putting significant pressure on Australia’s bowlers. Marcus Stoinis bustles in but is no match for Nissanka this over, three fours off it and time for a quick drink.
5th over: Sri Lanka 48-1 (Nissanka 30, K Mendis 15) Nissanka looks dangerous, he takes Cooper Connolly to task, flaying a wide ball over point for SIX and then disdainfully slapping four in the same area to end the over.
4th over: Sri Lanka 35-1 (Nissanka 18, K Mendis 14) Nathan Ellis into the attack, Mendis greets him with a SIX that soars way over square leg and into the stands!
3rd over: Sri Lanka 26-1 (Nissanka 17, K Mendis 7) Three boundaries off the over as the home fans start to believe in the stands. Nissanka bunts down the ground and then deftly flicks off his pads. Power and precision. Mendis late cuts with Andrex softness to get four off the last ball.
2nd over: Sri Lanka 12-1 (Nissanka 8, K Mendis 3) Kusal Mendis joins Nissanka in the middle. Bartlett is going to continue for Australia.
WICKET! Kusal Perera c Ellis b Stoinis 1 (Sri Lanka 8-1)
Stoinis takes the second over and strikes with his second ball! Perera rocks back to cut but gets a meaty top edge that Nathan Ellis swallows up.
1st over: Sri Lanka 8-0 (Nissanka 7, Perera 1) Pathum Nissanka, no doubt buoyed by his superman catch to get rid of Maxwell, is clearly full of confidence! He steps to the off side and flicks Bartlett off his pads for SIX. Sweet timing, eight runs off the first over.
Here come Sri Lanka’s openers with a decent job of work to do. Kusal Perera and Pathum Nissanka will start off, Xavier Bartlett has the ball for Australia. Play!
Australia make 181 and are all out!
Three wickets fall in the final over of the innings! Marcus Stoinis is caught in the deep and Xavier Bartlett and Adam Zampa sacrifice themselves on the altar of runs, both are run out in a mad scrabble at the end.
Sri Lanka come back into the contest in the second half of the innings after Head and Marsh blitzed a century stand in the opening ten. Sri Lanka will need 182 to win and qualify for the Super 8s, if they get them then they will more or less seal Australia’s fate in this World Cup.
Back soon with the chase.
WICKET! Cooper Connolly c Perera b Theekshana 3 (Australia 177-7)
Connolly tries a swipe across the line but serves only to send it up the chimney.
Xavier Bartlett is the new man and he can’t get Theekshana away! What a final over from the spinner, just two runs and the wicket off it.
19th over: Australia 177-7 (Stoinis 2, Bartlett 0)
18th over: Australia 175-6 (Stoinis 2, Connolly 1) Two overs left. Cooper Connolly joins Stoinis in the middle with Australia targeting 200.
WICKET! Josh Inglis c Wellalage b Chameera 27 (Australia 174-6)
Chameera comes back and gets rid of Inglis with a sharp bouncer!
17th over: Australia 168-5 (Inglis 22, Stoinis 1) Marcus Stoinis is the new batter. He’s into his work right away with a lofted cover drive for four. It was Josh Inglis who played this shot – durr. Three overs to go, Australia will want to be up around the 200 mark given the start they had.
WICKET! Glenn Maxwell c Nissanka b Hemantha 22 (Australia 160-5)
Are you kidding me?! Pathum Nissanka redeems himself with the catch of the tournament so far! A blinder! A scorcher! A hanger! Maxwell middles a reverse-hit, Nissanka soars at backward point and plucks the ball horizontal to the turf. He’d dropped a goober in the deep moments before.
Maxwell can’t believe it but he will appreciate the athleticism once his disappointment has worn off.
16th over: Australia 160-4 (Inglis 15, Maxwell 22) Drop! Pathum Nissanka shells Maxwell in the deep! A big miss and should have been held, the ball going straight through him as if he was a ghost. Inglis then rubs salt in the wound with a delightfully deft reverse ramp over the keeper for four.
15th over: Australia 151-4 (Inglis 10, Maxwell 18) Glenn Maxwell comes to the party post drinks. SIX over long on and a one bounce four with a ridiculous whip snap to a full ball that he somehow scorches over cover. Five to go, Australia well set for a big finish.
14th over: Australia 136-4 (Inglis 9, Maxwell 4) Wellalage bowls out, a thrift over that costs just five runs. He finishes with 1-33 from his four. Time for a slurp of electrolytes before the final third of this innings.
13th over: Australia 131-4 (Inglis 7, Maxwell 1) Glenn ‘The Big Show’ Maxwell arrives in the middle. Australia’s work is not done, they had a brilliant start but have been pegged back in the last few overs. Remember, if they lose this match they will need a mathematical miracle to save them from an ignominious early exit.
WICKET! Tim David c Hemantha b PHKD Mendis 6 (Australia 130-4)
Not pretty from Tim David, another big hack is caught in the deep. The Aussies lose their fourth!
12th over: Australia 127-3 (Inglis 4, David 6) Tim David plays an agricultural mow and the edge flies away for four. Wellalage rattles through his latest for ten runs. Sri Lanka edging their way back into this contest.
11th over: Australia 117-3 (Inglis 1, David 1) Sri Lanka needed to put the skids on and they have momentarily. Josh Inglis and Tim David out in the middle for Australia, plenty of hitting to come. Inglis could have been stumped first ball! Mendis fluffs his lines and the chance goes begging.
WICKET! Mitchell Marsh lbw b Hemantha 54 (Australia 116-3)
Pinned in front! Marsh survives the on field appeal but Sri Lanka are confident and rightly so! It is knocking out middle.
WICKET! Cameron Green st BKG Mendis b Wellalage 3 (Australia 110-2)
Gone this time though! Green hares out of his crease, wafts and misses. Mendis does the biz behind the sticks.
10th over: Australia 110-2 (Marsh 49)
9th over: Australia 105-1 (Marsh 47, Green 1) Cameron Green arrives in the middle. Hemantha beats him with a fizzing delivery right away, Mendis whips off the bails and appeals loudly suggesting the big man toppled out of his crease but the replays show Green stayed grounded.
WICKET! Travis Head c PHKD Mendis b Hemantha 56 (Australia 104-1)
The Aussie hundred comes up inside nine over, Head slots Hemantha over long on for another SIX.
Gone! My days, Sri Lanka needed that. Travis Head holes out to mid off and the home side can breathe a sigh of relief for a moment.
8th over: Australia 97-0 (Head 50, Marsh 46) Sri Lanka cannot stop the bleeding. Travis Head goes to a breathtaking fifty off 27 balls. Marsh then slaps a SIX down the ground for good measure.
7th over: Australia 84-0 (Head 49, Marsh 34) The Aussies keep on coming! 14 runs off the over, Travis Head flogs Hemantha down the ground for four and over extra cover for SIX. It is raining boundaries in Pallekele!
6th over: Australia 70-0 (Head 35, Marsh 34) Cripes! Mitch Marsh hits five fours in a row off Theekshana! The best of the lot was the last, a rifled cover drive that skimmed to the fence like a bullet. Marsh uses his power and long levers to muscle length ball through the off side, Australia have really missed him. 20 off the over. The wheels are rattling for Sri Lanka after the Powerplay.
5th over: Australia 50-0 (Head 35, Marsh 14) SIX! Shanaka drops short once more, Head obliterates it into the crowd! Travis Head then brings up Australia’s fifty with a mow over cover. The Aussies are ticking.
4th over: Australia 38-0 (Head 23, Marsh 13) Head looks in ominous touch, he swats Theekshana wide of long on for four. Six off the over.
3rd over: Australia 32-0 (Head 19, Marsh 12) Oh no, Matheesha Pathirana – ‘Baby Malinga’ as he is nicknamed after his slingy action resembles the Sri Lankan great – pulls his hamstring in the middle of the over. It doesn’t look good for the bowler who is grimacing in pain. He has to go off mid over, sorry news for him and his side. Captain Dasun Shanaka has to step up and bowl the final two deliveries, his first is a drag down that Head whisltes through point for four. Finishes with a dot but trouble for the home side.
2nd over: Australia 25-0 (Head 14, Marsh 11) Nine off the over as Sri Lanka opt for the wily spin of Theekshana. A spawny outside edge beats the field and brings Head four but there’s nowt lucky about the next, a thunderous cut for four more. This is already Australia’s best opening partnership of the tournament.
1st over: Australia 16-0 (Head 4, Marsh 11) No signs of that groin injury hampering Mitch Marsh, he gets into his work with a rasping cut for four past point! A single brings Head on strike. Four! Head clips over midwicket with Swiss clock timing. A scampered leg by follows. SIX! Marsh launches down the ground for a big one!
Dushmantha Chameera will open the bowling with his zippy seamers. Travis Head and Mitch Marsh will open up for Australia, let’s play!
The players take to the field for the anthems, there’s some grass on the wicket and the noise is that we should see some turn. Short boundaries square, longer ones down the ground. Pallekele is at altitude which Big Matty ‘Haydos’ Hayden says will see the ball cut through the air like a hot knife through ghee. Something like that anyway, Hayden is at altitude too.
Elsewhere, England have qualified for the Super 8s despite another underwhelming performance. The same can’t be said for Italy who pushed them all the way.
Follow the reaction with Daniel Gallan here:
Teams: No Steve Smith for Australia.
Australia XI: Mitchell Marsh (capt), Travis Head, Cameron Green, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Cooper Connolly, Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa
Sri Lanka XI: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis (wk), Pavan Rathnayake, Dasun Shanaka (capt), Kamindu Mendis, Dunith Wellalage, Dushan Hemantha, Dushmantha Chameera, Maheesh Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana
Sri Lanka win the toss and will bowl first
The big news is that Mitch Marsh is back! He says he is ready to go albeit his first act upon returning is to call incorrectly at the toss. Sri Lanka insert his side and opt to have first use of the wicket with the ball in hand. Teams incoming!
Preamble
James Wallace
Hello and welcome to the OBO of Sri Lanka v Australia from Pallekele.
It’s business time for Australia. After their defeat to Zimbabwe by 23 runs last week they can’t afford another defeat in the competition. A loss will see them all but eliminated in the group stages of an ICC tournament, that sort of thing just doesn’t happen.
Today the Aussies face a confident host nation who have two wins from two and a mastery in their own conditions. With injuries strewn across the camp, Australia will also likely be without their captain Mitch Marsh as he struggles to return from a nasty groin injury.
Steve Smith has been airlifted in and added to the squad, but will they pick him?
Plenty to get stuck into in what should be a crucial and enthralling encounter. We’ll have the teams and the toss in about ten minutes time with the game due to start at 1.30pm GMT/12.30am AEDT.
Business Time. Join us!
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2026/feb/16/sri-lanka-v-australia-t20-world-cup-cricket-live
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