Australia Clinch Record Breaking 18th Consecutive ODI Win Post 9-wicket Victory Over Sri Lanka

The victory continued Australia’s two-year unbeaten streak in the format and saw them go past the 17-game record set by Belinda Clark’s Australian team in the late 1990s.

Australia scripted history after clinching a world record 18th consecutive one-day international victory on the back of another brilliant Alyssa Healy ton in Brisbane. The hosts lost just one wicket to chase down Sri Lanka’s below par target with relative ease on Wednesday at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane. Healy played a blistering 112 knock off just 76 balls to register her third ODI ton while last-game ton maker Rachael Haynes (63 from 74) contributed with a stellar fifty in a match winning 159-run opening stand. The wicket-keeper sealed the contest with a towering six over long-on to round off  a dominant run against the tourists, highlighted by a T20 record unbeaten 148 off just 61 balls last week in Sydney. The victory continued Australia’s two-year unbeaten streak in the format and saw them go past the 17-game record set by Belinda Clark’s Australian team in the late 1990s. The national squad will now take a break for the WBBL, which begins next Friday, before the T20 World Cup on home soil next year. Australia’s men own the outright ODI record with 21 straight victories, set in 2003. But Lanning’s side can match that streak with a clean-sweep of their three-game series in South Africa in March, when they next play 50-over cricket. Australia were clinical against the world No 8 side, the gap in class obvious as both openers preyed on the visitor’s pace attack in ideal batting conditions. Sri Lanka weren’t completely powerless though, with standout Chamari Atapattu backing up her brilliant T20 century from earlier in the tour with another hundred after her side won the toss. The opener hung in as wickets fell around her and the run-rate slowed, finishing with 103 from 128 balls in an innings that featured some exquisite cover driving. A collapse of 3-2, triggered by leg-spinner Georgia Wareham’s (2-18) probing four-over spell, halted Sri Lanka’s bright start though and the Australians didn’t look back.