MELBOURNE: Chamara Kapugedera smashed a boundary off the last ball to secure a thrilling five-wicket victory for Sri Lanka against Australia in the first Twenty20 International here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.

Needing one run off the last ball, Kapugedera drove the fuller delivery from Andrew Tye through cover to seal the match and put his team 1-0 up in the three-match rubber.

With several of their top players in India for a Test series, Australia fielded a second-string team with Michael Klinger, Billy Stanlake and Ashton Turner making their debut in T20 Internationals.

Put into bat, the hosts could not make the most of a strong start and posted a modest 168-6.

Skipper Aaron Finch (43) went on to complete his 1,000 runs in Twenty20 Internationals while Klinger (38) and Travis Head (31) were the other notable contributors with the bat.

Paceman Lasith Malinga, playing his first international match in 12 months, was the pick of the Sri Lankan bowlers, claiming two wickets in two balls while also taking a couple of catches on his return.

Sri Lanka skipper Upul Tharanga fell for a duck but Dilshan Munaweera (44) and Niroshan Dickewalla (30) steadied the innings before Asela Gunaratne (52) hit his maiden half-century to take the tourists close to win.

With Sri Lanka seemingly cruising to victory needing 18 runs off the last three overs, Turner injected fresh excitement into the contest claiming two wickets in the 18th over.

James Faulkner conceded only six runs in his tidy final over that left Sri Lanka needing six off the last over from Tye who could only watch on agony as Kapugedera’s shot raced to boundary.

Scoreboard

AUSTRALIA:

A. Finch c Malinga b Gunaratne 43 M. Klinger c Malinga b Sandakan 38 T. Head c Prasanna b Malinga 31 M. Henriques c K’dera b Bandara 17 A. Turner c Prasanna b Malinga 18 J. Faulkner not out 14 T. Paine run out (Kulasekara) 0 P. Cummins not out 0

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-1, W-4, NB-1) 7

TOTAL (for six wkts, 20 overs) 168

DID NOT BAT: A. Zampa, A. Tye, B. Stanlake.

FALL OF WKTS: 1-76, 2-86, 3-116, 4-153, 5-153, 6-162.

BOWLING: Malinga 4-0-29-2 (1w); Kulasekara 4-0-38-0 (1nb, 1w); Bandara 3-0-35-1 (1w); Prasanna 4-0-23-0 (1w); Sandakan 4-0-30-1; Gunaratne 1-0-11-1.

SRI LANKA:

N. Dickwella c Klinger b Zampa 30 U. Tharanga c Paine b Cummins 0 D. Munaweera c Finch b Zampa 44 A. Gunaratne st Paine b Turner 52 M. Siriwardana lbw b Turner 15 C. Kapugedera not out 10 S. Prasanna not out 8

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-3, W-9) 13

TOTAL (for five wkts, 20 overs) 172

DID NOT BAT: S. Bandara, L. Malinga, N. Kulasekara, L. Sandakan.

FALL OF WKTS: 1-5, 2-79, 3-91, 4-151, 5-152.

BOWLING: Cummins 4-0-29-1; Stanlake 3-0-42-0 (4w); Faulkner 4-0-27-0 (1w); Tye 3-0-32-0; Zampa 4-0-26-2; Turner 2-0-12-2.

RESULT: Sri Lanka won by five wickets.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Asela Gunaratne

SERIES: Sri Lanka lead three-match series 1-0.

UMPIRES: Mick Martell, Paul Wilson (both Australia)

TV UMPIRE: Sam Nogajski (Australia)

MATCH REFEREE: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand).

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2017