<\/p>\n
Leg-spinner Adam Zampa played through pain to return figures of 4-47 and help Australia down Sri Lanka by five wickets for their first win at the 2023 Cricket World Cup on Monday.<\/p>\n
Five-time winners Australia bundled out Sri Lanka for 209, a total they overhauled in 35.2 overs at a windswept Ekana Stadium.<\/p>\n
Zampa was named man of the match in Australia\u2019s first win in three matches, but the 31-year-old said it had been tough coming into the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I wasn\u2019t feeling great because I had a bit of a back spasm,\u201d said Zampa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was playing through it the last couple of days. Today I felt better, bowled better.\u201d Former champions Sri Lanka slipped to a third loss in as many games.<\/p>\n
The drama on the field may have been limited but that was not the case in the stands.<\/p>\n
After rain interrupted Sri Lanka\u2019s batting, strong winds brought scaffolding and hoardings crashing down onto the seats below.<\/p>\n
With only around 3,000 people inside the 50,000-capacity ground, spectators managed to escape injury.<\/p>\n
However, Australia\u2019s reply was delayed when the umpires felt it unsafe to restart the match with high winds still a danger.<\/p>\n
Once the game resumed, opener Mitchell Marsh smashed 52 and wicketkeeper-batsman Josh Inglis made 58.<\/p>\n
Marsh led the chase after Australia lost two early wickets of David Warner, for 11, and Steve Smith, for a duck, to slip to 24-2.<\/p>\n
Marsh reached his first fifty in a World Cup off 39 balls but was soon run out after attempting a second run with Marnus Labuschagne, who hit 40.<\/p>\n
Labuschagne and Inglis put on a key stand of 77 to deny the thin crowd of any late drama.<\/p>\n
Left-arm quick Dilshan Madushanka broke the partnership to send back Labuschagne for his third wicket and spinner Dunith Wellalage got Inglis.<\/p>\n
But Glenn Maxwell, who hit a 21-ball 31, took the team home with Marcus Stoinis, who made 20, for company.<\/p>\n
Pat Cummins was under attack for his captaincy in the opening two losses.<\/p>\n
\u201cOutside noise doesn\u2019t bother us too much,\u201d said Cummins.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll parts of the game came together at the end. We\u2019re underway in the tournament and hope we keep it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madushanka had raised early hopes of a fightback for Sri Lanka after he trapped Warner and Smith \u2014 both lbw \u2014 in the same over.<\/p>\n
The left-handed Warner reviewed his decision but the tracker showed the ball would have kissed leg stump and the batsman returned to the stands fuming.<\/p>\n
Earlier Sri Lanka elected to bat first and started with a 125-run opening stand between Pathum Nissanka (61) and Kusal Perera (78) before the opposition bowlers hit back to end the innings in 43.3 overs.<\/p>\n
Perera reached his fifty with a boundary off Stoinis amid applause from the dressing room and a few Sri Lankan fans.<\/p>\n
Nissanka soon claimed his second successive half-century as Sri Lanka charged ahead.<\/p>\n
Cummins dismissed Nissanka through a good outfield catch by Warner and then bowled Perera.<\/p>\n
Zampa sent back skipper Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama on consecutive balls between overs to be on hat-trick avoided by Dhananjaya de Silva.<\/p>\n
Rain interrupted play for about 25 minutes and the break only gave Australia more power to return with wickets as left-arm quick Mitchell Starc bowled De Silva.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka kept losing wickets and Zampa grabbed two more including Chamika Karunaratne, who was only called up to replace injured captain Dasun Shanaka at the weekend.<\/p>\n
But Mendis remained confident of his batting line-up and said they \u201chave six more matches to perform better\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leg-spinner Adam Zampa played through pain to return figures of 4-47 and help Australia down Sri Lanka by five wickets for their first win at the 2023 Cricket World Cup on Monday. Five-time winners Australia bundled out Sri Lanka for 209, a total they overhauled in 35.2 overs at a windswept Ekana Stadium. Zampa was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/10\/16234540c5fd87b.jpg?r=234729","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t