Tillakaratne Dilshan's final international game ended in defeat for hosts Sri Lanka as Australia's Glenn Maxwell (66 from 29) put the bowlers to the sword once again in the second and final Twenty20 International on Friday. Only Dhananjaya de Silva (62 from 50 balls) turned up with the bat for Sri Lanka, who were restricted to 128/9 in 20 overs. Australia then scampered home with four wickets and 13 balls to spare. The visitors thus wrapped up the two-match series 2-0.
When Maxwell was carting the ball across the park, it looked like the Aussies would canter home with plenty of overs to spare. Yet again, the Sri Lankans failed to cope with the big-hitting Australian's onslaught. The booming sweeps on the leg side, the intuitive reverse-sweeps and the powerful bottom hand were in full cry from Maxwell's blade.
Maxwell was dismissed with 36 runs left to score and more than 10 overs to spare. But his wicket sparked a terrific resurgence from the home side, who picked up four wickets for seven runs in the space of 15 deliveries. The Sri Lankans were up in arms for every delivery that missed the bat. Seekkuge Prasanna was immense during this phase, milking out 10 consecutive dot balls apart from picking up Maxwell's wicket.
After lasting only three deliveries with the bat, Dilshan did not disappoint with the ball, picking up the wickets of Usman Khawaja and Matthew Wade to add further intrigue to the finale. The strategy was very simple from the Sri Lankans: It was the slower deliveries with a tinge of loop that that Australians were struggling with.
Travis Head put an end to the contest by smashing Sachith Pathirana over the deep mid-wicket fence, just eluding Sachitra Senanayake's leap.
There were placards, giant banners and innumerable "Thank You" messages as Dilshan walked out to bat. The Sri Lankans also formed a guard of honour with their bats for one of their country's finest.
Chasing after a wide delivery from John Hastings, Dilshan edged the ball to first slip to make the long walk back. Poor De Silva didn't get a semblance of support from any of the batsmen who followed him to the crease. Another 20 runs could have made the contest even more nail-biting, but the Sri Lankan batsmen had only themselves to blame after throwing their wickets away on a good batting surface.
Despite a much improved display, the defeat was the Island Nation's sixth in a row in the format.
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 128/9 in 20 overs (Kusal Perera 22, Dhananjaya de Silva 62; Adam Zampa 3/16, James Faulkner 3/19) lost to Australia 130/6 in 17.5 overs (David Warner 25, Glenn Maxwell 66; Tillakaratne Dilshan 2/8, Sachith Pathirana 2/23) by four wickets.
