Australia wrap up series victory

Ricky Ponting (left) and Adam Gilchrist pose with the Warne-MuralitharanTrophy
Australia claimed the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy for winning the series


Australia wrap up series victory
Second Test, Hobart (day five): Australia 542-5dec & 210-2dec beat Sri Lanka 246 & 410 by 96 runs


Australia clinched a 2-0 series win against Sri Lanka despite a superb 192 from Kumar Sangakkara in Hobart.

Sangakkara was dismissed in controversial fashion as the tourists fell 96 runs short of an unlikely victory as they chased 507 to win.

TV replays showed the ball hit his shoulder before cannoning onto his helmet and ballooning to slip and the umpire subsequently apologised.

Brett Lee took 4-87 as Sri Lanka, who now host England, were all out for 410.

Australia, the number one side in the world by a distance, have now won 14 Tests in a row, just two off the all-time record they set between October 1999 and February 2001.

Ponting, who took the catch, paid tribute to Sangakkara after the left-hander's innings was ended in unfortunate fashion.

"I think we all reacted on the two noises we heard at the time," said Ponting.

"I obviously caught the catch and appealed and went up for it and he was given out, but he played beautifully.

"I thought the way he struck the ball from about 120 onwards was some of the best hitting that you'll probably ever see with his back to the wall and running out of partners."

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said Sangakkara's innings, the highest by a Sri Lankan against Australia, "was one of the best I've seen".

Kumar Sangakkara unfurls a booming drive in Hobart


"He batted the plan we had for him after he got his hundred yesterday, to bat through the day today while the other guys rotate around him so that we can challenge the 500-run total - unfortunately the other guys couldn't do it," said Jayawardene.

The captain revealed that umpire Rudi Koertzen had apologised for wrongly giving Sangakkara out.

"Rudi came and said sorry to him. Kumar, being Kumar, was fine with it," said Jayawardene.

"He was very disappointed at the particular moment but when you sit back after half an hour, you know it's a mistake made by a human and that's it."

It always looked a massive task for the tourists and when they lost five wickets for 25 runs to slip to 290-8 it seemed all over.

Sangakkara did find an unlikely ally in the shape of Lasith Malinga and they put on 74 before his untimely end.


After Sangakkara's dismissal the paceman, who contributed only nine to their partnership, slogged Clark for consecutive sixes in the over before lunch and launched another six down the ground just after the interval.

He eventually finished not out on 42 after dominating the 46-run last-wicket stand with Muttiah Muralitharan.

But Lee, who won the man-of-the-series award after taking 16 wickets at just 17.56, finished things off when he bowled Muralitharan in the second over after lunch for 15.

Muralitharan arrived in Australia hoping to break Shane Warne's all-time Test wickets record but only picked up four - at a cost of 100 runs each - in the series.

He is four behind Warne's mark of 708 and will now look to break the record in the three-Test series against England in the coming weeks.