Charith Asalanka and Chamika Karunaratne’s late cameos helped Sri Lanka in posting a competitive total of 157/6 against Australia in their Super 12 encounter of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Perth on Tuesday.
Disciplined bowling by the Aussies kept Sri Lanka quiet for the major part of their innings but Asalanka and Karunaratne added 37 runs from the last 15 deliveries to help Sri Lanka to a respectable total of 157/6.
Asalanka remained unbeaten on 38 from 25 deliveries while Karunaratne scored an useful 14 from seven deliveries after walking in to bat at number eight.
Pathum Nissanka (40) and Dhananjaya de Silve also got off to good starts but they couldn’t accelerate, ending their innings at underwhelming strike-rates of 88.89 and 113.04 respectively.
