Australia's hopes of earning a place in the World Test Championship Final are over after they were soundly beaten by Sri Lanka at the Pallekele International Stadium in Kandy.
Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch that was spinning from the first morning. Spin accounted for 29 of the 38 wickets to fall and Shane Warne took 5 for 71 in Sri Lankas innings as they collapsed to 92 for 5. They recovered and thanks to Vaas and Muralitharan posted a total of 223 for 9. Arjuna Ranatunga was hit in the head by a Keith Miller bouncer and was taken to hospital. He was later ruled out of the rest of the game. Australia also suffered the loss of a player as Ray Lindwall was ruled out of bowling after just 11 overs as he turned over on his ankle.
Muralitharan and Vaas then ripped through Australias batting order as they were reduced to 54 for 5. 68 from Steve Smith and 40 from Keith Miller helped the Aussies recover and some late order resistance from Warne and O'Reilly gave them a small first innings lead.
Warne trapped Karunaratne LBW for 1 early in the Sri Lankan innings but then Kumar Sangakkara and Sanath Jayasuriya combined in a partnership of 126 for the 2nd wicket. Jayasuriya eventually fell for 106, his 2nd century of the tournament and Sri Lanka were 243-9 at the end of their innings. Shane Warne collect 4 for 90 as Sri Lanka set Australia 216 to win.
Australia were quickly 27 for 2 in their 2nd innings as Hayden was bowled by a Malinga yorker and Don Bradman was trapped LBW to Muralitharan for a duck. It brings an end to a poor tournament for the Don, one in which he scored only 350 runs at an average of just under 32.
Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist added 80 for the 3rd wicket before Gilchrist and then Chappell fell within 2 overs of each other to Malinga and Jayasuriya. Steve Smith and Ricky Ponting brought them to within 70 when Australia lost 2 wickets in 2 overs again. Rangana Herath and Lasith Malinga then took over and Australia crumbled, losing their last 6 wickets for 28 runs.
Sri Lanka were comfortable winners in the end and Herath was deserving Man of the Match, taking 7 wickets in the game. Warne would surely have won the MOM for his 9 wickets if Australia had gotten home. The result means that Australia have no chance of making the final and it brings disappointing end to the tournament for a team that entered it as strong favourites.
Sri Lanka 1st Innings 223-9 (98.2 Ov)
ST Jayasuriya 39, M Muralitharan 36, WPUJC Vaas 29, SK Warne 5-71, KR Miller 3-35
Australia 1st Innings 251-10 (90.4 Ov)
SPD Smith 68, KR Miller 40, WJ O'Reilly 33*, M Muralitharan 4-46, HMRKB Herath 4-67, WPUJC Vaas 2-54
Sri Lanka 2nd Innings 243-9 (83.5 Ov)
ST Jayasuriya 106, KC Sangakkara 47, DPMD Jayawardene 37, SK Warne 4-90, SPD Smith 3-10, WJ O'Reilly 2-55
Australia 2nd Innings 177-10 (70 Ov)
RT Ponting 57, AC Gilchrist 47, HMRKB Herath 3-31, SL Malinga 3-54, ST Jayasuriya 2-25
Sri Lanka win by 38 runs
Man of the match: HMRKB Herath
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