Sri Lankan national cricket team in Australia in the 2004 season

The Sri Lankan national cricket team tour to Australia in the 2004 season took place from July 1 to 13, 2004. The international cricket tour was part of the 2004 international cricket season and included two tests . Australia won the series 1–0.

prehistory

Australia previously played a tour in Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka as well . The last meeting of the two teams on a tour took place in the 2003/04 season in Sri Lanka . Actually, the tour should have taken place the year before, but scheduling difficulties around the Cricket World Cup 2003 caused the postponement to the otherwise unusual winter season for Australia. The Australian Prime Minister John Howard made several negative comments about the bowling techniques of the Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan , who therefore decided against traveling to Australia.

Stages

Cairns Darwin

Tour venues

The following stages were designated as the venue for the tour and announced on July 19, 2003.

Stadion	city	capacity	Games
Bundaburg Rum Stadium	Cairns	13,500
Marrara oval	Darwin	14,000

Squad lists

Sri Lanka named their squad on June 4, 2004. Australia named their squad on June 9, 2004.

test
Australia	Sri Lanka
Ricky Ponting ( K ) Adam Gilchrist ( VK & wk ) Matthew Elliott Jason Gillespie Matthew Hayden Michael Kasprowicz Simon Katich Justin Langer Darren Lehmann Glenn McGrath Damien Martyn Shane Warne	Marvan Atapattu ( K ) Russell Arnold Upul Chandana Tillakaratne Dilshan Sanath Jayasuriya Mahela Jayawardene Romesh Kaluwitharana ( wk ) Lasith Malinga Thilan Samaraweera Kumar Sangakkara ( wk ) Chaminda Vaas Nuwan Zoysa

Tour matches

June 24-27 Scorecard	Darwin	Northern Territory Chief Minister's XI 419 (105) & 145-9d (50)	-	Sri Lankans 378-7d (104) & 187-5 (59.5)
		Sri Lankans wins with 5 wickets

Testing

First test in Darwin

July 1-3 scorecard	Darwin	Australia 207 (71.3) & 201 (63.1)	-	Sri Lanka 97 (41.5) & 162 (65.4)
		Australia wins with 149 runs

Second test in Cairns

July 9-13 Scorecard	Cairns	Australia 517 (124.2) & 292-9d (66.4)	-	Sri Lanka 455 (144.4) & 183-8 (85)
		draw

statistics

The following cricket statistics were obtained on this tour.

Testing
Batting
player	team	Games	Innings	Runs	Average	HS	100s	50s
Matthew Hayden	Australia	2	4th	288	72.00	132	2	0
Justin Langer	Australia	2	4th	210	52.50	162	1	0
Damien Martyn	Australia	2	4th	203	50.75	97	0	2
Darren Lehmann	Australia	2	4th	179	44.75	57	0	3
Marvan Atapattu	Sri Lanka	2	4th	156	39.00	133	1	0
bowling
player	team	Games	Overs	Wickets	Average	BBI	5W	10W
Upul Chandana	Sri Lanka	2	61.4	12	22.50	5/101	2	1
Glenn McGrath	Australia	2	81	10	17.10	5/37	1	0
Lasith Malinga	Sri Lanka	2	63.3	10	26.40	4/42	0	0
Shane Warne	Australia	2	100.5	10	28.00	4/70	0	0
Michael Kasprowicz	Australia	2	67.4	8th	25.12	7/39	1	0

Player of the Series

The following players were honored as Player of the Series .

series	Player of the Series
test	Matthew Hayden

Player of the Match

The following players were recognized as Player of the Match .

game	Player of the Match
1st test	Glenn McGrath
2nd test	Matthew Hayden

Web links

• The series on Cricinfo

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Darwin and Cairns to host Sri Lanka in 2004 Tests ( English ) Cricinfo. July 19, 2003. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
2. ↑ Sri Lankan board will allow Murali to skip tour to Australia ( English ) Cricinfo. April 15, 2004. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
3. ↑ Christian Ryan: PM throws spanner in works - again ( English ) Cricinfo. May 17, 2004. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
4. ↑ Murali pulls out of Australian tour ( English ) Cricinfo. June 15, 2004. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
5. ^ Murali named in party for Australian tour ( English ) Cricinfo. June 4, 2004. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
6. ↑ MacGill on the outer again ( English ) Cricinfo. June 9, 2004. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
7. ↑ Records / Sri Lanka in Australia Test Series, 2004 / Most runs ( English ) Cricinfo. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
8. ↑ Records / Sri Lanka in Australia Test Series, 2004 / Most wickets ( English ) Cricinfo. Retrieved January 5, 2017.