Aussie nightmare reaches ugly new depths

The Aussies enter the match having misplaced each opening matches, taking place by six wickets to hosts India earlier than a 134 run loss to South Africa – their heaviest defeat at a World Cup.

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Regardless of boasting the batting firepower of David Warner and Steve Smith, the Aussies have but to publish a complete of 200.

Sri Lanka stay winless regardless of posting spectacular scores of 326 towards South Africa and 344 towards Pakistan.

The horror begin to the World Cup has put each nations firmly towards the wall with the Aussies needing to win six of their last seven video games to have an opportunity at a semi-final berth.

10pm – Australia now with the higher hand

Adam Zampa has claimed his second wicket after thundering one into the pads of Sadeera Samarawickrama.

Umpire Joel Wilson barely hesitated as he lifted his finger into the air however the Sri Lankan star was simply as fast to ship it upstairs for evaluate.

After a prolonged delay the replays rolled and confirmed the ball was near leg stump with DRS ruling it as umpire’s resolution.

Sri Lanka had reached 125 runs with out the lack of a wicket, however have since misplaced 4/41.

9.45pm – Momentum beginning to flip

The Aussies are selecting up wickets at a constant charge with Adam Zampa claiming the important thing wicket of Kusal Mendis for under 9 runs.

Mendis went after Zampa however skied his sweep try excessive into the sky the place it was hauled in as soon as once more by David Warner.

Warner coated unimaginable floor earlier than dropping down onto one knee for the catch. The Aussie opener’s knee dug into the turf and resulted in him limping after he hauled within the catch.

9.40pm – Sri Lankan hazard man despatched packing

Pat Cummins has struck for the second time, this time sending Kusal Perera on his method after a superb innings of 78.

An ideal supply from Cummins snuck between bat and pad and thundered into the stumps, sending the bails flying.

9.20pm – Australia lastly get the breakthrough

After 21.4 overs the Aussies have their first wicket with opener Pathem Nissanka despatched on his method for 61.

A bouncer from skipper Pat Cummins crept up on Nissanka as his pull shot fell into the palms of a diving David Warner.

Warner got here speeding in off the boundary rope and took a superb catch after the Aussies have failed miserably within the subject of their opening two matches.

8.45pm – Nightmare simply retains getting worse

Australia’s World Cup nightmare goes from unhealthy to worse.

The Aussies have seemed fully misplaced towards the Sri Lankan openers because the scoreboard simply retains on ticking over.

With 15 overs within the books, the Aussies will likely be left to rue what may have been after Glenn Maxwell emphatically appealed for LBW within the tenth over.

His shouting fell on deaf ears as Pat Cummins elected to not evaluate it having burnt one evaluate on the primary ball of the innings.

Replays rolled moments later exhibiting Maxwell’s supply was occurring to hit leg stump and would have given the Aussies their first wicket.

8.05pm – Followers nowhere to be seen at World Cup

Stadiums round India have remained largely empty regardless of the most effective cricketers on the planet battling it out for ODI supremacy.

The embarrassing scenes have been highlighted by these watching on all through the 2023 World Cup with much more piling in on Monday night time.

In a should win conflict for each Australia and Sri Lanka, the groups walked out onto the bottom with empty seats so far as the attention may see.

AAP’s Oliver Caffrey wrote: “Marsh Cup type of crowd for toda’s match.”

One consumer on X wrote: “The place’s the group at Lucknow? It’s worse than a North Melbourne AFL crowd at Blundstone Area in Hobart.”

One other sarcastically posted: “One other huge crowd for #CWC23.”

A 3rd wrote: “Ekana stadium Lucknow is a flop present. @BCCI don’t even know to setup correct prize at completely different stadiums. Overvalued tickets has layed to a fairly crowd at Lucknow.”

7.30pm – Opening over carnage

In what’s being touted as a do-or-die contest, the Aussies acquired off to the worst potential begin.

Mitchell Starc’s first ball of the innings swung again throughout the stumps and appeared to hit opener Pathem Nissanka on the pads. The Aussie fast was sure the ball had hit the pads first and urged his skipper to ship the choice upstairs.

Sadly as replays rolled it not solely confirmed the ball would have missed leg stump, Nissanka had acquired bat onto the ball first. One ball down, one evaluate misplaced.

A number of balls later Starc stopped after reaching the crease as he issued a warning to Kusal Perera for leaving his crease early.

“After the primary ball Starc had a bit phrase with the umpire, Kusal Perera simply leaving his crease… he was saying to Kusal Perera ‘don’t depart your crease’,” Nasser Hussain stated.

“That’s truthful sufficient, he’s informed the umpire now he’s informed the batter, keep in your crease at that finish… a really eventful first over.”

7.05pm – Sri Lanka win the toss and elect to bat

The Aussies have suffered their first loss on the night time with Pat Cummins dropping the coin toss on a wicket predicted to go well with the primary workforce much better.

Regardless of the hearsay mill going into overdrive on Monday, Cummins took his place alongside his teammates for the essential showdown.

Australia: David Warner, Mitch Marsh, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoins, Mitch Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis (c, wk), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Chamika Karunaratne, Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Lahiru Kumara, Dilshan Madushanka

6.50pm – Bombshell hearsay hangs over skipper’s head

Australia imply enterprise of their makes an attempt to resurrect their diabolical World Cup begin and it went subsequent stage on Monday when a bombshell hearsay was floated by former Aussie skipper Michael Clarke.

Clarke shared what he had heard on Monday morning when he said present captain Pat Cummins can be dropped for the sport towards Sri Lanka.

“I heard final night time that Pat Cummins just isn’t going to be chosen for this sport,” Clarke stated on Sky Sports activities Radio’s Huge Sports activities Breakfast.

“We’ve dropped our wicketkeeper… who is likely one of the most essential folks in your squad. So he acquired one sport and acquired dropped. Now there’s speak we’re going to drop our captain.

“If Alex Carey is just given one sport, he shouldn’t be in India. They shouldn’t have taken him. If Pat Cummins goes to get dropped and never captain the workforce, you then guys have chosen the mistaken captain.”

Clarke additionally took purpose at Australia earlier within the week for its “horrible” preparation within the lead-up to the World Cup, one thing he doubled down on forward of the sport towards South Africa.

“I heard the gamers say our preparation was good. No, no — you had sufficient video games of cricket however you didn’t use these video games,” Clarke stated.

“You didn’t choose your greatest gamers. You didn’t work out are we going to bat first, bowl first. You didn’t work out who’s enjoying the place, you didn’t even choose your captain to let him captain some video games of cricket. So come World Cup semi-final [or] grand last he is aware of precisely what he’s doing underneath strain.

“Pat Cummins doesn’t captain sufficient video games. He’s in India capable of play however they rested him for a sport.”