Aus vs SL: Shanaka, Kusal Mendis star as visitors win by five wickets

Kusal Mendis (69*) and Dasun Shanaka (35) starred with the bat as Sri Lanka defeated Australia by five wickets in the fifth and final T20I here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.

With this win, Sri Lanka registered their first win of the series, however, Australia won the series 4-1.

Chasing 155, Sri Lanka lost its first three wickets with just 54 runs on the board in the seventh over and this brought Kushal Mendis and Janith Liyanage together in the middle. Both batters put on just 17 runs for the fourth wicket, and this partnership was brought to an end via a run-out in the 9th over, reducing Sri Lanka to 71/4, with visitors still 84 runs away from the target.

Mendis and Dasun Shanaka played knocks of 69 and 35 and in the end, the duo guided Sri Lanka to a comfortable five-wicket win.

Earlier Matthew Wade and Glenn Maxwell played knocks of 43 and 29 respectively as Australia posted 154/6 in the allotted twenty overs. Josh Inglis and Daniel Sams also played useful cameos of 23 and 18.

In the final two overs, Australia scored 17 more runs and as a result, the hosts posted a total of more than the 150-run mark. For Sri Lanka, Lahiru Kumara and Dushmantha Chameera returned with two wickets each.

Brief Scores: Australia 154/6 (Matthew Wade 43*, Glenn Maxwell 29; Lahiru Kumara 2-34); Sri Lanka 155/5 (Kusal Mendis 69*, Dasun Shanaka 35; Kane Richardson 2-28).

(ANI)

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