Confident Sri Lanka seeks series win

Sri Lanka will head into the second Twenty20 International, that will be played at the Simonds Stadium in Geelong on Sunday (February 18), high on confidence after clinching a nail-biting last-ball victory against Australia in the first game.

The home side succumbed to a five-wicket defeat on Friday after Chamara Kapugedera smashed a boundary off the last ball to give Sri Lanka its fourth win on Australian soil in as many games.

While the trio of Niroshan Dickwella, Dilshan Munaweera, and Asela Gunaratne kept the side on track in the 169-run chase with some aggressive hitting, it took the calm head of Kapugedera to take it over the line.

"Some of our guys batted exceptionally well and played some unbelievable shots," said Graham Ford, the Sri Lankan coach. "Although we're not a young team, it's a fairly inexperienced one, so each time it gets over the line I think it does a hell of a lot for their confidence and belief."

Sri Lanka -- who is in Australia without Angelo Mathews, the regular skipper -- was boosted by the return of Lasith Malinga. The 33-year-old did his reputation no harm, taking two wickets in two balls in the latter part of Australia's innings to dent the base set by Aaron Finch, the captain, and Michael Klinger, the debutant.

It initially seemed that Australia -- playing without Steven Smith, David Warner, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, all on tour in India -- would go on to post a total of close to 200 after the openers had added 76 runs in 10.3 overs.

But once Seekkuge Prasanna and Lakshan Sandakan, the spinners, took charge, Sri Lanka managed to turn the tide in its favour. The pair grabbed two wickets, conceding 53 runs in their quota of eight overs. The visiting side will hope the spinners can carry the good work forward as it seeks a series win.

Meanwhile, the Australia players, who have mostly been picked for their performances in the recently concluded Big Bash League, find themselves in a tight corner. They will need someone from the top three to go on to make a big score and lay a strong platform for the hitters like Ashton Turner, James Faulkner or even Ben Dunk, who didn't feature in the playing XI for the first gam. It shouldn't come as a surprise if Finch brings in Dunk to the mix just to add more firepower to the line-up.

"There are areas we can improve on in all aspects of the game," said Klinger after the match. "If one of your top three or four batters can get 60, 70-plus, then it goes a long way to winning the game. Myself and Finchy got starts and it certainly would have been nice if one of us got a big score, but it didn't happen."

Adam Zampa and Ashton Turner, the spinners, who had their own say in the match, lacked support from the pacers, who allowed Sri Lanka's top order to get off to a flying start. While Australia hit 13 boundaries, Sri Lanka managed 21, with Billy Stanlake going for 42 runs off his three overs.

"We probably let them get away from us a bit too early and weren't as disciplined with our bowling as we could have been," said Pat Cummins, who finished with 1 for 29 runs in his four overs. "We weren't too far off -- they bowled quite well, but I thought we got enough runs. It's just [about] continuing to be quite fearless and when we are bowling, working out the areas they are going to hit to. They hit a few boundaries -- will try to minimise that, try to get them to hit to the big boundaries, and hold our nerve a little bit longer."

The match will be played at the Simonds Stadium, which is the 11th venue accredited to host international matches in Australia, given the green light by the International Cricket Council last year. The 115m-wide ground had previously failed to meet the ICC’s guidelines of 137.16m from boundary to boundary square of the wicket, but now with the correction made it will add an unknown factor for both the sides. "It's going to be a bit different with pitch and angle, but I think the atmosphere will be great," said Cummins.

Australia will hope to provide the Geelong crowd with some good memories -- while banishing its bad memories of the previous game -- but that may also depend on the weather forecast, with rain expected to make an appearance in the evening.