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The opening batsmen were Adam Gilchrist and Mathew Hayden scoring a partnership of 172.
When Gillie went out in the 31st over, Australia was on 224 runs and by the time the 38th over finished (there were only 38 because the game started so late) Australia was on 281 with only four batsmen out. Wonderful!
One reason the Aussies got so many runs was that Sri Lankan bowlers had not enough offense which is hard to say because they had Malinga and Muralitharan which have a killer bowling attack but they had to bring in others like Fernando. In fact at one stage in the match, when Fernando was bowling, Gillie hit a four then another four and then a six and someone in the crowd behind us yelled, "CAN YOU HEAR THE DRUMS FERNANDO?!!?!?!!" which I found very funny.
Sri Lanka needed a miracle or as they said "a hand of God" to win, but they couldn't get that many runs in 38 overs and in the 33rd over the umpires decided that Australia had won, so there was cheering as the Aussie cricketers jumped up and down in glory as theSri Lankans went into their lockers. A minute or two later, after all the cheering died down, the cricketers came back onto the field because the umpires, wrongly, decided that Sri Lanka should play it out. Even though it was very dark.
The Aussies got another wicket and the game finished (really) at the end of the 36th over (it was the 36th not the 38th because it rained again and the umpire said there wasn't enough time to play to the 38th, they also reduced the amount of runs Sri Lanka needed to win).
Australia won and the celebration was humongous with fireworks and lots of dancing.
