Sri Lanka vs Australia, 2nd ODI at Colombo, Sri Lanka vs Australia, Feb 14 2025 - Ball by Ball Commentary

Asalanka goes on to collect the series trophy and then heads to his team-mates. Asitha holds the trophy alongwith Nuwanidu as everyone smiles for the cameras. Not an easy feat to beat the reigning ODI world champions. That is all we have from Colombo for today. Hope you enjoyed our coverage. The cricket continues - Pakistan and New Zealand tussle in the tri-series final, Zimbabwe and Ireland battle it out in the first ODI while WPL 2025 will kick-off later this evening with Gujarat Giants taking on RCB. Do join us for all the coverage. On behalf of Chandan and Alagappan, this is Sudarshanan bidding you goodbye. Ciao!

4:10pm Time for the presentation.

Kusal Mendis, Player of the Match: "I am very happy today. First couple of overs, had to play the new ball. Nishan batted well and supported me. I played well at the death then. This track was a little slow and turned. We batted well, me and Charith and Nishan batted well and handed the pitch well. Charith batted well after the 30th over. I enjoyed his batting."

Steven Smith, Australia captain: "We have been outplayed in these last two games. We keep moving forward, credit to Sri Lanka, they played well in these surfaces. Thought their bowlers exceptionally well. These wickets skidded more than the Test wickets. It has been a fun time here in Sri Lanka. Some great memories made in the last few weeks."

Charith Asalanka, Sri Lanka's captain is also the Player of the Match: "There is no mantra. I just wanted to score big hundreds and get three-four wickets from each man. Clearly the pitch had low bounce today than the last game. No seam movement. But a good pitch. Kusal Mendis and Nishan Madushka set the platform for us. Australia also bowled well but today is our day. Both days went really well. When I go to bat, I don't think about captaincy. I am a No. 5 batter for the team. It is disappointing to miss out of Champions Trophy. But don't need to look back and think much. But we should not repeat the mistakes and look forward to such form."

Meanwhile, make sure to catch the latest episode of Around the Wicket for a review of the Test series and a lookahead to the Champions Trophy:

3:59pm A massive 174-run for Sri Lanka as Australia crumble to their lowest ODI total in Asia and second-lowest against Sri Lanka. Australia have lost 7 for 28 to just go down like ninepins. Once Wellalage got through Inglis' defence, the picture drastically changed. He and Hasaranga shared seven wickets between them to compound Australia's woes just ahead of the Champions Trophy. Smith looked largely untroubled in his stay but a marginal lbw call went against him and that was that. Sri Lanka take the series 2-0 and perhaps have dented Australia's confidence massively.

Maheesh Theekshana: "Really happy with the collective performance. Wanted to win the two games, we were confident. The atmosphere is really nice. The pitch was better than the last game. Thought we had to bowl tight in the middle. It was slow, so it was not easy to hit at the death. Our plan was to bowl tighter. We saw there was a little spin when they bowled. Knew we had to bowl better lines and lengths. We have a great legspinner and a left-arm spinner, well done. Asalanka did well in the first game with a century in the first game, did well with a half-century in the second game. Good support from Liyanage and Kusal Mendis. So a collective performance."

Bunty: "2-0 against India, now 2-0 against Australia, 2023 ODI world cup runners and champions."

Akindu: "Asitha doesnt get nearly enough credit for both games. If the openers were allowed to settle the result wouldve been different in both. Early inroads win matches"

Shashank: "Australia is in an interesting group in CT. England, South Africa and Australia all going into tournament with back to back defeats (considering Australia is losing I this one). And the fourth team is Afghanistan whose every win will be fall in surprise win category. Interesting to see which two teams make it to Semi final"