Sri Lanka veteran Lasith Malinga believes his nation’s status as underdogs heading into the ICC Cricket World Cup means they are set to spring a few surprises.
Australia secured back-to-back victories in their World Cup warm-up matches after a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka at Southampton on Monday.
Steve Smith dropped down the order and was not required as Australia chased down Sri Lanka’s 239 with 31 balls remaining for the loss of five wickets.
Sri Lanka batted first, with only two players – opener Lahiru Thirimanne (56) and Dhananjaya De Silva (43) – scoring more than 30 as they reached 239 for eight from their 50 overs.
Despite the early dismissal of Aaron Finch, fellow opener Usman Khawaja came back from an early injury scare after he was hit on the knee while fielding to top-score with 89 from 105 balls and put Australia ahead of the required run-rate.
Useful contributions from Glenn Maxwell (36), Shaun Marsh (34) and Marcus Stoinis (32) helped see their side over the line.
However, Malinga is not reading too much into the result – watch his thoughts in the video above.
