This match with the result having no impact in the final helped Sri Lanka to go home with a pride of beating the world champions!
Winning the toss and deciding to bat, Sri Lanka posed 221 in 50 overs. Jayawardane scored 50, Dilshan scored 62, Silva scored 35, which helped Sri Lanka to reach 200-run mark. Bracken took 4 wickets and Lee ended with 2.
Australia looking for an easy win, started with the wonderful first wicket partnership of 107 runs in 15 overs. Hayden rested for this match--an indirect punishment for his comment about Harbhajan in the radio interview. This provided an opportunity to the future wicket keeper of Australia to open the innings with the soon-to-be retired keeper cum batsman Gilchrist. Out of the 107, Hopes scored 28 and was dismissed by Muralitharan. Then the wickets started falling like the nine pins. From 107 for no loss, Sri Lanka took 8 wickets for 51 runs putting pressure on the tail enders to score the remaining 64 runs to win. Ponting (1), Clarke (0), Symonds (0), Hussey (5), Haddin (7) were dimissed in single digit--like a telephone number. Hogg scored 21 and Lee scored 37 which gave some hope to Australia, but good bowling by all the bowlers turned the match in Sri Lankan's way. Australia requiring 49 off last 11 overs with 2 wickets in hand lost Johnson in the first ball of 40th over. Lee and Bracken played till the 48th over and in 2 overs requiring 14, but Jayasuria bowled Lee in the 1st ball of the 49th over, taking 4 consolation points.
Final Score:
Sri Lanka 221 in 50 overs (Jayawardane 50, Dilshan 62, Silva 35, Lee 2 for 55, Bracken 4 for 29) beat Australia 208 in 49.1 overs (Gilchrist 83, Hopes 28, Lee 37, Kulasekara 2 for 36, Amerasinghe 3 for 44, Muralitharan 2 for 42)
Man of the Match: Gilchrist (Australia)
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