Josh Hazlewood bagged 4/16 before David Warner and skipper Aaron Finch put on an unbeaten 134-run opening stand to power Australia to a comprehensive 10-wicket win in the first T20I against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Tuesday, June 7.
Openers Pathum Nissanka and Danushka Gunathalika got Sri Lanka off to a brisk 39-run start in 4.5 overs, with the latter playing the aggressor, striking three fours and a six during his 15-ball 26. Gunathalika became Hazlewood’s first victim, slicing one to Mitchell Marsh at deep backward point.
Charith Asalanka then joined Nissanka for a 61-run stand, pacing the innings steadily, with 32 runs coming between overs 10-12. Just as the hosts looked prime for a big score at 100/1, Mitchell Starc yorked Nissanka for 36 to catalyse a dramatic collapse.
Hazlewood returned to send back Kusal Mendis, Bhanuka Rajapaksha and skipper Dasun Shanaka in the very next over to reduce the hosts to 103/5. Things got worse when Asalanka got run out in a bid to steal a bye not long after, and Starc and Kane Richardson returned to clean the tail, bundling SL out for 128, with three deliveries unused.
Hazlewood finished 4/16 from his four-over spell, his fourth four-wicket haul in 28 T20Is, while Starc returned 2/36. Finch and Warner began rather cautiously in the chase, with off-spinner Maheesh Theekshana and seamer Nuwan Thushara restricting them to 14 in the first three overs with a lone boundary.
Warner survived a definite run-out at the non-striker’s end after a slight mix up in the third over, and Wanindu Hasaranga misjudged a catch at mid-off on the first ball of the fourth to give the left-hander a second reprieve. Finch struck Dushmantha Chameera for a six downtown, marking the beginning of an onslaught.
The pair would take 19 and 13 off the next two overs bowled by Hasaranga and Theekshana, respectively, to round off a highly productive 59-run powerplay. The onslaught continued thereafter, with Warner getting to his 22nd T20I fifty with a boundary towards fine leg. It was his fifth straight 50-plus score against Sri Lanka in the format – a sequence that had begun with an unbeaten 100 at the Adelaide Oval in October 2019.
He got another chance soon after, as Nissanka shelled a straightforward chance at cover. The pair brought their fourth century stand in the format, and the Aussies stood 101/0 from 11.5 overs before a 50-minute rain interruption followed. The visitors were 36 ahead of the DLS par score of 65 at that point.
The play resumed with no overs lost, and Finch soon got to his 17th T20I fifty with a flowing drive towards the backward-point boundary off Thushara. He then struck a four and a six off Chameera in the next over, the latter being a well-controlled ramp over the third-man fence to complete a dominant 10-wicket win with six overs remaining.
The second T20I will be played at the same venue on June 9.
Brief scores
Sri Lanka 128 all-out in 19.3 overs (Asalanka 38, Hazlewood 4/16, Starc 3/26), lose to Australia 134/0 in 14 overs(Warner 70*, Finch 61*) by 10 wickets
