Sri Lanka’s opening batter Pathum Nissanka registered the first century of the T20 World Cup 2026 edition, helping the Dasun Shanaka-led side to register an emphatic eight-wicket victory over Australia in the Group B match at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Pallekele on Monday. With this defeat, Australia are on the brink of elimination from the group stage. If Zimbabwe beat Ireland on Tuesday, then the 2021 champions’ campaign would be done and dusted.
This was the first time that any batter across the world scored a century against Australia in the T20 World Cups. The previous best score for any batter against the team in the competition was 94 by Pakistan’s Umar Akmal.
This chase of 182 is Sri Lanka’s highest successful run chase in T20 World Cups, and it is also the highest run chase by any team against Australia in the competition’s history.
The occasion also marked the first time Sri Lanka had scored above 180 in T20Is against a team other than Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. Nissanka now has the joint-highest score by any Sri Lankan batter in the T20 World Cups, alongside former captain Mahela Jayawardene, who had scored 100 against Zimbabwe in 2010.
Speaking of Nissanka’s knock, he was calm and composed through the entire duration of his stay at the crease. Sri Lanka’s chase of 182 started off on a bad note as opening batter Kusal Perera lost his wicket in just the second over. However, from there on, Nissanka found support in Kusal Mendis and the duo formed a stand of 97 runs for the second wicket, with the latter scoring 51.
Mendis lost his wicket against the run of play off the bowling of Marcus Stoinis. However, Nissanka ensured that the team get over the line. He also got support in Pavan Rathnayake, who played an unbeaten 28-run knock of 15 balls. In the end, the co-hosts of the tournament cruised home with eight wickets in hand and 12 balls to spare, sealing their berth in the Super 8s.
Australia’s horrendous batting collapse
Heading into the match against Sri Lanka, Australia knew the task at hand. A win was needed to put some pressure on Zimbabwe and throw Group B wide open. Mitchell Marsh returned to the side after recovering from an injury, and he, along with Travis Head, formed an opening stand of 104 runs inside eight overs. However, as soon as Head (56) and Marsh (54) departed for the hut in quick succession, Australia’s innings derailed, and the side only managed to post 181 runs on the board despite being 104/0 in 8.2 overs.
For Sri Lanka, Dushan Hemantha turned out to be the game-changer as he returned with three wickets, taking the scalps of Marsh, Head and Glenn Maxwell (22).
