BSS, Sydney :
Australia scraped past Sri Lanka to take control of their five-match Twenty20 International series on Sunday after late fireworks from the visitors forced their second clash in Sydney to a rare super over after it ended in a tie.
Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka won the toss and bowled for the second game in a row, despite his side struggling in the run chase during their 20-run defeat in the first clash of the series on Friday.
It appeared to be heading the same way after Josh Inglis’ 48 spearheaded Australia to 164 for six, and the Sri Lankan top order again failed to fire.
But Pathum Nissanka’s 73 and a breezy 34 off 19 balls from Shanaka sent the game to the wire.
With Marcus Stoinis bowling, Sri Lanka needed 12 off the last three balls to win. Maheesh Theekshana hit a six, then a single before Dushmantha Chameera smacked a four to tie the match and send it into a nail-biting super over.
Josh Hazlewood bowled the over for Australia with Shanaka and Dinesh Chandimal facing. After two dot balls, Chandimal was run out and Sri Lanka managed just five runs.
That left Australia needing six to win with Glenn Maxwell and Stoinis reaching the target off three balls from spinner Wanindu Hasaranga.
“Great to get the win but pretty sloppy overall, we might have got away with one tonight,” said skipper Aaron Finch. “We bowled some great overs, we bowled some poor overs. But the fielding was poor.”
