London: Sri Lanka will play India in the semi-final as they held their nerves to beat Australia by 20 runs to move into the last-four stage of ICC Champions Trophy here on Monday.
Batting first, Sri Lanka rode on some fine batting from veteran Mahela Jayawardene (84 off 81 deliveries) and a fine half century (57) from Lahiru Thirimanne to post 253-8 on a turning pitch at The Oval.
The target became even more daunting for Australia, as the Aussies in order to qualify for the simi-final had to achieve it in 29.1 overs which seemed very unlikely in the given conditions.
Chasing the target, Australia lost Shane Watson early and though Glenn Maxwell and Hughes scored some quickfire runs, they soon lost the momentum and were reduced to 69 for 4 before the end of ninth over.
Adam Voges made 49, while wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade contributed 31 from 23 deliveries. A last-wicket stand of 41 between Clint McKay and Xavier Doherty took Australia much closer to victory than seemed likely.
Nuwan Kulasekara was was the reckor-in-chief as he scalped three wickets for 42 and was also instrumental in executing a run out and took a good catch as well.
Earlier, Jayawardene completed his 11,000 one-day international runs in hitting his 69th half-century. Tillakaratne Dilshan (34) and Lahiru Thirimanne (57) put on a 72-run stand to form the foundation of Sri Lanka’s innings. Jayawardene then struck 11 boundaries and received able support from Dinesh Chandimal’s 31 from 32 balls.
