Australia achieved the target of 155 runs for victory with 18 balls to spare. For the team, David Warner contributed 65, Finch 37 and Steve Smith contributed 28 not out.
“We knew that after the powerplay, (Wanindu) Hasaranga and off-spinner (Mahesh) Teekshana would have a big impact on the match,” Finch said at the post-match awards ceremony. So we knew we had to take chances against their fast bowlers. We were successful, Davy (David Warner) batted brilliantly.
He credited the bowlers for the team’s return in the match, saying, “It was a really great performance. He started well with the batting but Adam Zampa and then Mitchell Starc got us back in the match.
He praised Adam Zampa for taking two wickets for just 12 runs in four overs on a pitch helpful to the batsmen.
“Sri Lanka batted well in the powerplay but Zampa controlled the game brilliantly. He took big wickets. It was awesome today.”
Man-of-the-match Zampa said, “Sri Lanka had a quick start, but we were able to stop them at the right time.”
He admitted that the dew had made the conditions challenging for the Sri Lankan bowlers.
“During the second innings, there was dew, which made it difficult for the slow Sri Lankan bowlers to spin,” Zampa said.
Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka blamed poor batting in the middle overs as the reason for the defeat. He said that his team scored 25-30 runs short.
“We failed to convert good starts into big scores. We could have done a little better in the middle overs.
“In the last match, Charith Aslanka batted till the end and the batsmen who have settled at the crease will have to take the same responsibility,” he said.
“We were short by 25 to 30 runs,” the captain said. We know Warner and Finch are world class batsmen. We should have bowled well and allowed him to score less runs in the power play but we couldn’t do that.
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