Sri Lanka drew 1–1 in the 5-match ODI series against Australia on the night of 16 June 2022. They beat Australia by 26 runs in the second ODI. Australia lost their last five wickets in just 17 balls for 19 runs. In this victory of Sri Lanka, its bowlers Dushmantha Chameera, Chamika Karunaratne, Dhananjaya de Silva and Dunith Wellalage played important roles.
In the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, Dushmantha Chamira was part of KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants and Chamika Karunaratne was part of Shah Rukh Khan-owned Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). In this match played at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Pallekele, Australia won the toss and decided to bowl.
Sri Lanka had batted only 47.4 overs when the rain came. By that time Sri Lanka had scored 220 runs for 9 wickets. After the rain stopped, the game was reduced to 43 overs and Australia got a target of 216 runs on the basis of DLS. However, the entire team of Australia was all out for 189 runs in 37.1 overs.
At one point in the match, Australia’s score was 170 runs for 5 wickets in 34.1 overs. The team was easily heading towards victory. On the same score (34.2 overs) Karunaratne took the wicket of Glenn Maxwell. Maxwell was dismissed for 30 runs in 25 balls. Alex Carey was run out by Kusal Mendis on the last ball of the 35th over by Chamika Karunaratne.
Chamira made Pat Cummins her victim on the last ball of the 36th over. On the third ball of the next over, Karunaratne bowled Mitchell Swesen. Chamira bowled Matthew Kuhnemann on the first ball of the 38th over. In this way the Australian innings came to an end and Sri Lanka won the match.
David Warner was the team’s highest scorer for Australia. He scored 37 runs in 51 balls. For Sri Lanka, Dushmantha Chamira took 2 for 19 in 6.1 overs and Chamika Karunaratne took 3 for 47 in 7 overs. Dhananjay de Silva and Dunith Velalez also managed to take 2-2 wickets for 26 and 25 runs respectively.
Wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis was the highest scorer for Sri Lanka. He scored 36 runs. Captain Dasun Shanaka and Dhananjaya de Silva were dismissed after scoring 34-34 runs. Australia won the first ODI of the series by 2 wickets.