Tillakaratne Dilshan, when he announced that he would retire from the international game after the two-match T20 series, would have envisaged a perfect sendoff, one where he scores bucketloads of runs and where Sri Lanka end up on the winning side.
After Australia absolutely thumped Sri Lanka in the first T20, when they went on to post a world record score, with Glenn Maxwell running riot, Dilshan would have at least hoped for the perfect sendoff in his final match in Sri Lankan colours.
Unfortunately, it was not to be, as Australia dominated from ball one to seal a comfortable enough four-wicket win, with Maxwell, again, starring with the bat.
Batting first, Sri Lanka kept losing wickets, and could only manage to score 128/9 in their 20 overs. That was never going to be enough, not with the kind of mood that Maxwell is in, and with the new Australia opener notching 66 (29b, 7x4, 4x6), Australia weathered a bit of a spin scare to get to their target with 13 balls remaining.
Bating first, the stage was perfect set in Colombo for Dilshan to make his mark with the bat, one final time in international cricket. However, in just the eighth ball of the innings, John Hastings got his man. Dilshan tried to cut an innocuous ball outside off, but only found the edge through to Warner at slip.
The veteran walked off the field to a standing ovation, raising his bat as he contemplated the end of a wonderfully-successful journey.
From there, it was all downhill for Sri Lanka, with only Dhananjaya De Silva able to get any score of note, making 62 (50b, 5x4) to at least give his bowlers some hope of making it a game.
It did not look like turning into one when Warner (25, 24b, 3x4) and Maxwell got off to an absolute flier, scoring at well over ten runs an over, but four wickets in the space of just over two overs, which brought Australia from 93/0 in 8.2 overs to 99/4 in 10.4 overs gave SL some hope.
But with the target almost there by then, Australia had enough in their batting to scamper home, even if Dilshan put a bit of stamp into this game, by picking up two wickets – of Matthew Wade and Usman Khawaja – in just two overs, finishing with figures of 2-0-8-2.
