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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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