Cricket World Cup: Australia defeat Sri Lanka by five wickets.© AFP
Australia are back in the reckoning at the ODI Cricket World Cup 2023. Coming into the match against Sri Lanka at the Cricket World Cup in Lucknow on Monday, the former champions found themselves at the bottom end of the points table. However, the Australia cricket team came out all guns blazing against Sri Lanka and registered an easy win, also their first in three matches at this edition. With this win, Australia have climbed up to the eighth place in the World Cup points table. They are on two points from three matches with a run-rate of -0.734.
India continue to lead the World Cup points table while New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan are the other top-four teams.
Adam Zampa, Josh Inglis and Mitchell Marsh delivered when their team needed them the most as Australia breathed life into their floundering World Cup campaign with a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka on Monday.
Leg-spinner Zampa claimed four wickets as Australia bowled out Sri Lanka for 209 despite half-centuries by Kusal Perera (78) and Pathum Nissanka (61).
Looking on course for a 300-plus score, Sri Lanka faced a bizarre batting collapse to lose 10 wickets for 84 runs.
Inglis (58), who scored his maiden World Cup fifty, Marsh (52) and Marnus Labuschagne (40) then did the heavy lifting with the bat as Australia overhauled the target in 35.2 overs, giving a solid boost to their net run rate.
While Australia rose to eighth position on the table with their first win of the tournament, the loss severely dented Sri Lanka’s chances of progressing to the semifinals as they sit at the ninth spot with three defeats from as many games.
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