By IANS
Cape Town : Australia moved into the semi-finals of the Twenty20 World Championships at the Newlands ground here Thursday with a facile 10-wicket win over Sri Lanka in a Group F clash.
Chasing the 102-run target set by Sri Lanka, Australia cruised home safely in just 10.2 overs with opener Matthew Hayden scoring an unbeaten 58 and Adam Gilchrist not out on 31.
Australia completed their Group F league with four points from three matches, having earlier lost to Pakistan, who face Bangladesh in an inconsequential tie at the same ground. With four points, Pakistan are already through to the last four and need only to win their last group game to finish on top.
Asked to bat first, Sri Lanka suffered the first setback off the third ball of the day when Brett Lee trapped veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya leg before. Sri Lanka kept losing wickets thereafter. Upul Tharanga was the next to go, soon followed by Mahela Jayawardene, who edged attempting a heave over midwicket.
Sixteen balls into their innings and Sri Lanka were struggling at 11 for three and it could have been worse four balls later, but Brad Hodge mistimed a leap at mid-on and dropped Kumar Sangakkara.
Sri Lanka’s batsmen approached the match in a manner that suggested they had never played a Twenty20 game before. Jehan Mubarak was the top scorer for Sri Lanka with his 28 and was supported by Chaminda Vaas (21) in the last few overs but that did not prevent their innings from folding up for 101 in 19.3 overs.
The Australian opening pair clinically shredded the Sri Lankan bowling to march into the last four.
Hayden brought up his fifty off 34 balls and then finished the match with a huge six, the ball disappearing out of the ground.
SCOREBOARD:
Sri Lanka vs. Australia, Twenty20 World Championship, at Newlands, Cape Town
Sri Lanka:
Upul Tharanga c Lee b Bracken 4
Sanath Jayasuriya lbw Lee 0
Kumar Sangakkara c Clarke b Clark 22
Mahela Jayawardene c Clark b Lee 1
Chamara Silva c Lee b Clark 6
Tillekeratne Dilshan c Gilchrist b Clark 3
Jehan Mubarak c Symonds b Watson 28
Farvez Maharoof c Clarke b Clark 0
Chaminda Vaas c Lee b Symonds 21
Lasith Malinga not out 12
Dilhara Fernando c & b Bracken 0
Extras (lb 1, w 1, nb 2) 4
Total (all out in 19.3 overs) 101
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Jayasuriya, 0.3 overs), 2-9 (Tharanga, 1.6), 3-11 (Jayawardene, 2.4), 4-21 (Silva, 5.3), 5-30 (Dilshan, 7.3), 6-43 (Sangakkara, 9.3), 7-43 (Maharoof, 9.5), 8-83 (Mubarak, 16.2), 9-99 (Vaas, 18.5)
Bowling:
Brett Lee 4-0-27-2
Nathan Bracken 3.3-0-14-2
Mitchell Johnson 4-0-18-0 (1w)
Stuart Clark 4-0-20-4 (1nb)
Shane Watson 3.2-0-19-1 (1nb)
Andrew Symonds 0.4-0-2-1
Australia:
Adam Gilchrist not out 31
Matthew Hayden not out 58
Extras (b 4, lb 2, w 6, nb 1) 13
Total (for no loss in 10.2 overs) 102
Bowling:
Chaminda Vaas 2-0-21-0 (1nb)
Dilhara Fernando 3-1-12-0
Farvez Maharoof 2-0-34-0 (1w)
Tillekeratne Dilshan 2-0-13-0 (1w)
Lasith Malinga 1-0-8-0
Jehan Mubarak 0.2-0-8-0
Result: Australia win by 10 wickets
Toss Australia, who chose to field first
Points Australia 2, Sri Lanka 0
Man of the match: Stuart Clark (Australia)
Umpires: Asad Rauf (Pakistan) and Ian Howell (South Africa)
TV umpire: Tony Hill (New Zealand)
Match referee: Mike Procter (South Africa)