A victorious Sri Lanka will play in Cardiff on Thursday. A humbled Australia will start pondering the Ashes, and the state of disrepair their cricket has fallen into. Led by Mahela Jayawardene's silken unbeaten 84, Sri Lanka stuttered into a Champions Trophy semi-final against India by defeating a collective whose captain Michael Clarke watched disconsolately from The Oval balcony.
Their slim chances of qualifying long since expired, Australia offered a last gasp via Clint McKay and Xavier Doherty, who added 41 for the final wicket. They were only separated by a blinding return catch from Tillakaratne Dilshan, whose exultant celebrations underlined the anxiety that had crept into a team who looked comfortable winners for most of the journey.
Once Jayawardene had lifted Sri Lanka to 253 for 8 after an uncertain beginning, passing 11,000 ODI runs on the way, Australia's chances of qualifying became largely theoretical. India in their pomp might have been a chance to reach 254 in 29.1 overs, but not a team that had failed to top 250 in two previous matches and been distracted by all manner of off field woes, from Clarke's fragile back to David Warner's choices of drinking spots and punching bags.
This left Angelo Mathews' team to ride out a brief spell of hitting from Glenn Maxwell, a doughty rearguard from Adam Voges, and a pesky last stand by the final wicket pair of McKay and Doherty, who conjured the second best partnership of the innings. As in India earlier this year, this served mainly to expose the appalling lack of application shown by many of the batsmen.
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