Australia Opt to Bat, no Watson Yet

Hobart: Australian skipper Michael Clarke won the toss and elected to bat against Sri Lanka in the 9th ODI of the tri-series at Bellerive Oval in Hobart.

Australia begin life in the ODI format without two-time World Cup winning former captain Ricky Ponting, aiming to consolidate their position at the top of the points table.

The Australians sit atop the table with 14 points after winning three out of their five matches. The Lankans are three points adrift after a couple of wins, equal number of losses and a tie from their five games so far.

Head to head, both the teams have beaten each other once in the competition and with India struggling to stay afloat, they could be the eventual finalists as well.

The hosts would miss the colossal presence of Ponting but given that he was woefully out of form, the "weird" feeling of playing without him, as Clarke put it, would not be too difficult to deal with.

Teams:

Australia: Michael Clarke (Captain), Dan Christian, Xavier Doherty, Peter Forrest, Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Brett Lee, Matthew Wade (wk), David Warner.

Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (Captain), Angelo Mathews, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Upul Tharanga, Dinesh Chandimal, Fraveez Maharoof, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Thisara Perera, and Lahiru Thirumanne.

Scores	Upcoming	Results
South Africa vs Pakistan - 3rd ODI 4th Test - Australia v India - December 26-30, 23:30 GMT 1st Test - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan - December 26-30, 07:30 GMT 3rd ODI - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan at Harare Afghanistan won by 8 wickets (with 139 balls remaining) 3rd T20I - West Indies v Bangladesh at St Vincent Bangladesh won by 80 runs

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