Defending champions Australia defeated Sri Lanka by 7 wickets in their T20 World Cup Super 12 Stage Group 1 match in Perth on Tuesday.
Chasing a target of 158 to win, the Australian team scored runs for the loss of 3 wickets in 16.3 overs.
Marcus Stoinis unbeaten 59 off 18 balls with 4 fours and 6 sixes was the highlight of the Australian innings.
Batting first, Sri Lanka scored 157 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Padum Nissanka top scored for Sri Lanka with 40 runs and Sarith Josh remained unbeaten on 38 runs.
Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Agar and Glenn Maxwell took one wicket each for the Australian side.
Australia came in next and won by 158 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in 16.3 overs. On the Australian side, Marcus Stoinis became the man of the match by leading the team to victory.
David Warne was dismissed for 11 runs, followed by Mitchell Marsh’s 18, Glenn Maxwell’s 23 runs with 2 fours and 2 sixes along with captain Aaron Finch led the team’s score.
At that time, Marcus Stoinis, who came to the field while Australia was in a bit of trouble, smashed the Sri Lankan bowling with fours and sixes.
This reduced the need for runs to win. At one point, his delivery made up for the lackluster ball count.
Ending the match in the 17th over itself, Stoinis scored 59 with 4 fours, 6 sixes and Aaron Fincher remained unbeaten with 31 runs. Dhananjaya, Samika, Mahish Dikshana took 1 wicket each in Sri Lankan bowling.
Australia have now registered their first win after losing their first match against New Zealand. Similarly, it is noteworthy that the Sri Lankan team defeated Ireland by 9 wickets in their first match.
In this match, Stoinis scored a fifty off 17 balls. This is the fastest fifty by an Australian player. That makes it the 2nd fastest fifty in T20 World Cup. With India’s Yuvraj Singh (12 balls – 2007) at the top spot, Stoinis shares the second spot with South Africa’s Stephanus Maipak (17 balls – 2014).