Sri Lanka's survival in the cricket tri-series hung by a slender thread after they lost to world champions Australia by 24 runs in a rain-curtailed encounter here.
MELBOURNE: Sri Lanka's survival in the cricket tri-series hung by a slender thread after they lost to world champions Australia by 24 runs in a rain-curtailed encounter here on Friday.
Chasing Australia's modest score of 184 for seven, the islanders were 77 for four in 29.3 overs when rain forced a premature end to the proceedings with Sri Lanka well behind under the Duckworth-Lewis method.
The two on-field umpires, Simon Taufel and Rudi Koertzen, waited for the rain to stop till the cut-off of 10.20 pm local time before calling off play. Since a minimum of 20 overs are required to constitute a game, Australia were declared winners and also got a bonus point.
The result of the rain-affected game dealt a huge blow to Sri Lanka's quest for a berth in the best-of-three finals as they now need to win their remaining two matches to have a chance. They would also need India to lose to Australia in Sydney on Sunday.
With this victory, Australia confirmed their place in the finals and maintained their position atop the points table with 22 points from six games. India are second with 12 points from the same number of matches while Sri Lanka are at the bottom with six points from as many matches.
Sri Lanka did well to restrict the powerful Australian line-up to a moderate total but their batsmen once again let them down.
Veteran Sanath Jayasuriya continued his poor run and was out first ball edging Stuart Clark to Ricky Ponting at second slip with the team yet to score a run.
It became three for two when Dilruwan Perera, included in place of Chamara Kapugadera, was adjudged in front off Clark for a single.
The trusted pair of Kumar Sangakkara and skipper Mahela Jayawardene tried to repair the damage patiently but the captain threw his wicket away when he played a lazy waft outside off-stump against Nathan Bracken to be caught behind.
It put enormous pressure on Sangakkara but when he miscued a pull off James Hopes to be caught by Andrew Symonds, the writing was very much on the wall.
Earlier, Sri Lanka rode on the bowling of Farveez Maharoof (2-20) and Mutthiah Muralitharan (2-37) to keep the hosts in check after Mahela Jayawardene put the Aussies in under overcast skies.
Michael Hussey (64 not out) and Michael Clarke (50) rescued Australia by putting on 90 for the fifth wicket after they were reduced to 54 for four in the 22nd over.
The Australian batting continued to struggle in the tri-series with their top order failing to come to terms with the pitch as well as the tight Lankan bowling.
Adam Gilchrist went cheaply when he was bowled by left-armer Chaminda Vaas for six attempting an ambitious shot.
Opening partner Matthew Hayden and out-of-form skipper Ricky Ponting looked distinctly uncomfortable during their time in the middle and despite persistent efforts, failed to provide the required momentum to the innings.
Hayden (23) tried to improvise but got a leading edge off Maharoof and was caught by Chamara Silva at short cover.
Ponting, who was dropped by Tillakaratne Dilshan at backward point before he had opened his account, struggled to 11 before he was run out by Maharoof who reacted quickly on his follow-through to run the rival captain out, leaving the hosts 44 for three.
An over-eager Ponting pushed off for a single without waiting for the ball to get past the bowler and Maharoof dived across the pitch to collect the ball and throw it to wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara, who took the bails off with the batsman well short.
All-rounder Andrew Symonds, also continued his poor recent run and was caught behind for four off Maharoof, who came back impressively after the expensive spell against India in Adelaide on Tuesday.
Clarke and Hussey then put their heads down and batted responsibly to extricate Australia from a precarious position.
They ran quickly between wickets and gave quite a few opportunities for direct hits, which the Lankans could not capitalise on.
Clarke, who has been in splendid form in the tri-series, hit four boundaries in his knock, which came off 69 deliveries while Hussey hit just one four in his unbeaten knock.
Just as it seemed that the hosts would achieve a score beyond 200, Clarke hit a full-toss right back at Muralitharan.
The next two batsmen, James Hopes and Brad Hogg, could not contribute much and the Lankan bowlers efficiently restricted Australia in the slog overs.
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