Australia holds their nerves to register win against Sri Lanka - One of the most important matches of Pool A was the 32nd match of the tournament. It was a match played between Australia and Sri Lanka. The winners of the match were to decide the position of the qualification from their pool and hence the reason for the importance of the match was because it would have helped in deciding the quarter-finals opponents. Australia in this all-important match won the toss and decided to bat first.
Batting first the Australians failed to get a good start. Aaron Finch and David Warner lost their wickets quiet cheaply. They scored 24 and 9 runs respectively. Later Michael Clarke and Steven Smith partnered each other to make sure that the team didn’t lose their way. Smith scored 72 runs while Clarke scored 68 runs. Clarke fell in the 32nd over leaving his team at 175 runs. Soon Sri Lankans struck again taking the wicket of Smith after scoring 72 runs. The match was evenly poised but as Glenn Maxwell took the crease things changed for Australia. Shane Watson too partnered Maxwell and both the batsmen scored 102 and 67 runs respectively. The team posted a total of 376 runs on 50 overs.
Sri Lanka had a great start in their innings. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara gave the team a dream start they were looking for. Lahiru Thirimanne lost his wicket after scoring only 1 runs but Dilshan and Sangakkara took their team to a score of 135 runs. Dilshan after scoring 62 runs lost his wicket. Sangakkara continued his quest with the bat and went onto score 102 runs. Things looked well for Sri Lanka as they were going on smoothly but soon Sangakkara lost his wicket and that helped Australia in covering the lost ground. Dinesh Chandimal was the only hope for the Lankans as he was striking the ball well. He reached a score of 52 in 24 balls but then he was retired hurt and the Lankans were bowled out at 312 runs. This high scoring match ended up with Australia moving onto the 2nd spot in Pool A. Glenn Maxwell was named as the man of the match for his high scoring innings.