Mathews pulls it off,almost

With Malinga and Mathews crossing over before the catch was pouched by Australia ‘keeper Mathew Wade,the only positive at that moment was that the all-rounder was on strike. Mathews missed two straight back-of-the-palm slower balls,edged another off his hips and exposed Prasad to the Aussies for the first time. Prasad thanked him by nearly getting out first ball,his leading edge falling just short of Ricky Ponting at point. The wicket-reaping over ended and Sri Lanka,181/9,still needed 51 runs from the last six overs.

The fightback

Fast forward an over by Mitchell Starc,and things had only spiralled out of hands for Sri Lanka. Mathews began the 47th over by swishing and missing two more McKay slower balls,before finally landing bat on leather,clammering it over extra cover. Daniel Christian hared across from long-off to save two runs,but Mathews got it right next ball,smashing McKay into the vacant fine-leg area for his first boundary in 11 overs. It took him to two short of a half-century.

In the 48th bowled by Starc,with exactly two runs required of every ball (36 off 18),Mathews did the incredible by giving the strike to Prasad second ball. This time,Prasad responded by pulling Starc’s short one to the fielder at square-leg and the pair had enough time to run three. As Mathews returned the strike to him once again,Prasad bludgeoned Starc straight back over his head to make it the first 10-run over of this innings.

With three doubles and two singles off McKay’s last and the match’s penultimate,the stage was set for a last over finish. Eighteen needed of six. Mathews set up the stage by smashing Starc’s first ball through midwicket for four. He then burned that stage down by scooping Starc next ball inside-out for a six over long off. As the ball sailed over the ropes,Mathews pumped his fists with glee. Unfortunately,those celebrations were a little premature.

Almost there

As Mathews’s blade got well under the second last ball off the match,for a second it seemed like he had scored all six runs required with a ball to spare. But as Christian wrapped his hands around it inches away from the long-on boundary ropes,Sri Lanka fell short of the target by just five runs. Runs that could have easily have been saved had captain Jayawardene wrapped up the Australian tail early in the first innings. He could have,considering he had the best lower-order mopper in his ranks in Malinga.

When Christian,Michael Clarke and Ryan Harris fell in three consecutive overs,Australia had gone from 186/5 in the 40 th over to 192/8 in the 42 nd . A captain’s knock of 57 by Clarke had held the Aussie innings until then,but now with new men McKay and Starc in the middle,Lanka threatened to dismiss the hosts for less than 200 at the WACA.

It remained an empty threat,however,as Jayawardene introduced Malinga five overs too late in the 47th ,by when the tailenders had already stitched together 21 valuable runs. And during their 32-run eighth wicket stand,McKay and Starc notched their highest one-day scores of 25 and 14 respectively as Australia reached 231 in 50 overs.

The reply began with Upul Tharanga being dismissed for five,before Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chandimal made the only fruitful contributions of 40 and 37 until Matthews’ knock. The game all but ended when Clarke struck first ball with Chandimal’s wicket. But those who stayed back to watch it will swear that that’s when the action just warmed up.