Spinner restricted Sri Lanka to 239

Sri Lanka were restricted to 239 for 8 despite a composed half-century from Lahiru Thirimanne at the top and a Dhananjaya de Silva cameo towards the end, in their final warm-up game ahead of World Cup, against Australia on Monday (May 27).

Sri Lanka made a steady start after opting to bat first, and were relatively comfortably placed before regular strikes from Australian spinners and part-timers in the middle overs ensured the opposition couldn't capitalise on the start. If not for de Silva's 41-ball 43 at the end, Sri Lanka were staring a score below 200.

Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins were particularly impressive with the new ball and even created a couple of chances. Thirimanne finally managed to break the shackles and hit Kane Richardson for three successive boundaries to pep up the scoring rate. But the bowler came back strongly to take out his opening partner Dimuth Karunaratne off a short ball that the Sri Lankan skipper edged behind, though with the help of a review. Kusal Perera, like the openers, got a life early into his innings when Australia missed a second run-out chance in the 11th over, but failed to capitalise on it. He crawled to 12 off 19 before being trapped lbw off Glenn Maxwell just one ball after the drinks break.

Thirimanne forged a third partnership, worth 39 with Kusal Mendis, in which he did the bulk of scoring again. He raised his half-century, off 62 deliveries, but Lyon bowled him through the gate soon after. The wicket of the set batsman opened floodgates as Sri Lanka slipped from 110 for 2 to 161 for 6 in the next 13 overs. Nearly all middle-order batsmen got starts, but neither managed to capitalise on it to push on for a stronger total.

The two Mendises - Kusal (24) and Jeevan (21) - perished in their attempt to sweep Adam Zampa. Kusal, trying to slog-sweep from outside off, sent it straight down the throat of deep midwicket, while Jeevan was pinged plumb in front of the stumps. In the meanwhile, Angelo Mathews hit a half-volley back to the left of Steve Smith who took a smart catch.

De Silva arrested the slide and later stepped on the accelerator - albeit after a cautious start - to propel his side at the fag end. Kane Richardson was welcomed back into the attack with back to back boundaries, and a total of 14 off the over. The batsman fetched another set of boundaries off Lyon with the following over yielding 13 in total for Sri Lanka. He went on to raise the fifty his partnership with Thisara Perera, off 45 deliveries.

Starc returned in the 47th over, and gave away only five to stop the bleeding of runs. He ultimately put an end to de Silva's cameo, seven short of a fifty, in the penultimate over to ensure Sri Lanka were restricted below 250. In the meanwhile, Pat Cummins struck with the first ball of the 48th to dismiss the other set batsman, Thisara.

Australia had an injury concern with Usman Khawaja being forced to walk off the park after copping a blow to his left knee in the 31st over of Sri Lanka's innings.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 239/8 in 50 overs (Lahiru Thirmianne 56, Dhananjaya de Silva 43; Adam Zampa 2-39, Pat Cummins 1-23) vs Australia.