Australia cruised past Sri Lanka on day six at the T20 World Cup but the news of the day was the apology by Quinton de Kock to his teammates and fans for not taking the knee in support of the BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement.

Game 11

Australia 155 for 3 (Warner 65, Finch 37, Hasaranga 2/22) beat Sri Lanka 154 for 6 (Perera 35, Zampa 2/12) by seven wickets

The problem with love stories is that in real life very few of them have happy endings. Sri Lanka’s ‘love story’ of defeating Australia promised a lot but eventually had a tragic ending at the hands of an extremely professional Australian side.

Put in to bat after losing the toss, Sri Lanka got off to a flier thanks to last match hero Charith Asalanka 35 (27) and Kusal Perera 35 (25). At 78/1 in the 10^th over they had a great platform to finish with a big total. But then came the slide where 78/1 soon turned into 94/5.

The man of the match, leg spinner Adam Zampa, who went for only 12 runs of his 4 overs and picked up 2 wickets, was the pick of the Aussie bowlers along with the Mitchell Starc (2/27) who swung the ball at pace. Eventually it was only due to the efforts of Bhanuka Rajapaksa 33 (26) towards the end that Sri Lanka managed a respectable 155 for 6 of their 20 overs.

In reply the Australian duo of David Warner and Aaron Finch started the run chase in such fury that after the first six overs of the powerplay they reached 63 for no loss which is the highest powerplay score in all T20 world cups to date.

Before this innings Warner had been struggling for form. He was even dropped from his IPL side, the Sunrisers Hyderabad for his poor returns with the bat. But riding his luck yesterday, he smashed 65 (42) enabling Australia to finish the game with more than 3 overs to spare.

The Sri Lankan spinners bowled economically but the pacemen were taken to the cleaners by all the Aussie batters. With two wins from two games, Australia join England at the top of the table and with a win and a loss from two games, Sri Lanka are still in with a chance of making it to the semifinals.

On a slightly different note, South African Quinton de Kock has apologised to his teammates and fans for not taking the knee in support of the BLM movement and for missing South Africa’s last game.

In the statement released by him, de Kock explained his side of the story and what made him take the decision to withdraw. QDK has now made himself available for all of South Africa’s remaining games. He is an integral part of South Africa’s plans and the team will only benefit from his talent and services being available to them.