One up to Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka last night defeated an Australian team which buckled under the pressure at some crucial stages, notably the last few overs of the Sri Lankan innings and intermittently during its own.

The Lankan fielding was excellent, with Dilshan outstanding: his run out of Martyn by hitting the stumps on the full from a swooping pickup was as good as you could hope to see . I don't know why he didn't win the player of the match award (as well as effecting four run outs he biffed some useful runs in the final overs of the Lankan innings and took a catch).

Richard Earle's report in today's Advertiser also gave evidence of buckling under the pressure of a tight deadline (" A comical series of mid-pitch brain explosions sabotaged Australia's chase of its 275 target to win Adelaide's inaugural final in front of 23,512 fans') though his version published on the Herald Sun website ("Dilshan throws spanner in works") is much more restrained.

Observations on the crowd's attitude to Muralitharan's bowling

When Murali began to bowl there were a few a few cries of "no ball" from some people (many of them children) near me but these were were countered by applause, and as he soon took a wicket the cries ceased while the applause continued.