Sri Lanka lose De Silva with thigh injury in one-day defeat
AFP
8 January 1999
MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan 8 (AFP) - Sri Lanka's hopes of winning
the triangular one-day cricket series against England and
Australia were hit by an injury to their best batsman Aravinda De
Silva during a warm-up match here Friday.
De Silva tore his left thigh muscle during the 38th over of Sri
Lanka's dismal innings of 180 against Australia A which the home
team passed with five wickets and six balls to spare. The injury
could sideline him for most of the series.
It was hardly what Sri Lanka needed heading into the tri series
out of form with Friday's defeat giving them a 2-1 series loss to
Australia's second side coming on top of early exits from
tournaments in Sharjah and Bangladesh.
De Silva has long been the mainstay of Sri Lanka's batting and he
is their greatest ever one day scorer with 7,801 runs from 247
matches including an unbeaten century in the 1996 World Cup final
victory over Australia.
``The doctors are hoping he will be right after seven to 10 days
but there is no guarantee,'' team manager Ranjith Fernando said.
``It is a big blow particularly as Aravinda has been batting so
well. It's going to be a big handicap to us.''
Sri Lanka already had a player on standby to join the 16 man
touring squad, all rounder Mahela Jayewardena.
The injury means the powerful right hander will certainly miss
Sri Lanka's opening tri series match against England in Brisbane
on Monday and their next game against Australia in Sydney on
Wednesday.
The Sri Lankans will then have a six day break before taking on
England again in Melbourne and will be desperate to have their
vice-captain available by then as they face a gruelling schedule
of four games in six days.
His importance to the Sri Lankan batting was immediately apparent
as the team folded without him not even batting out its 50 overs
thanks to Shane Lee's 4-27.
De Silva's 45 remained the top score with Hashan Tillekaratne the
only other player to pass 20 although both skipper Arjuna
Ranatunga and dashing opener Sanath Jayasuriya were rested from
the match.
Australia A had few problems chasing Sri Lanka's total apart from
a hiccup in the 27th and 28th overs when they lost skipper Greg
Blewett for 43 and Damien Martyn for 32 to be precariously placed
at 93 for four.
However local Brad Hodge (39) and Andrew Symonds (46 not out) led
Australia A comfortably to their target.
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