David Warner delighted with limited-overs win after poor Test performance

David Warner and Glenn Maxwell formed an effective opening duo in the T20 series

Despite the ball turning sharply and the sell-out crowds baying for Sri Lanka, Australia won the limited overs series playing “scrappy cricket”, Australian stand-in skipper David Warner said after the 2nd T20I against Sri Lanka.

Warner took over the reigns from Steven Smith after the latter went back to Australia to prepare for the long home summer after the 2nd ODI and there has been no looking back for the Australians ever since. They have won all their last 5 matches and have been particularly impressive in the T20Is, winning the 1st by 86 runs and coming victorious in the 2nd by 4 wickets despite reeling at 27/6 at one stage.

"I think the guys showed a lot of determination and fight to overcome the conditions, which were very, very challenging and something that we are not very used to," Warner was quoted as saying by ESPN Cricinfo. "The Test guys had to make an adjustment to make - from the Test match conditions to the one-day conditions.

"You saw scrappy cricket during the one-day series, where the highest score was 280 here. And then we were scrapping to get to 200. It was good grinding cricket. It was something that we're not used to. The encouraging signs mean that we've worked really hard to win both series.” The Australian batsman added. 

Though the Australians fared much better against the Lankan spinners in the limited-overs leg of the tour, Warner suggested that it doesn’t make them better players against spin in Tests. He was also particularly happy with the performance of bowlers in pitches not conducive for fast bowling.

"We knew once the shine got off the ball, the ball was going to spin consistently," Warner said. "In one-day cricket, it's a bit different - you can't have two in close with slip and a leg slip. It's just not possible. The reverse sweeps, sitting in the crease to pinch the ones and twos, and rotating the strike, are all much easier in this game than in the Tests, where it was very, very tough for us as a batting team. But the way the bowlers conducted themselves and reduced totals after losing the toss consistently, was a fantastic effort," the stand-in captain said.

Maxwell also shared the same views as his skipper and said that a good T20 performance doesn’t guarantee better performance in Tests. Maxwell has been in sublime form in the two T20 matches scoring 145 from 65 balls in the 1st encounter and followed it up with a breathtaking 66 off 29 balls in the 2nd one.

Warner was full of praise for Maxwell, "Maxwell is a very good player of spin inside the first six," 

The Australian captain, however, shed light on what Maxwell's role could be one Aaron Finch returns to the side, "He can chance his arm. He can reverse sweep and sweep. What he did today and the other day was no fluke. That's exactly what he can do when given the opportunity. We know with the team we have a structure there, and once Aaron Finch comes back in, he'll probably have to move down the order and assess what his game plan is again. We've seen him do it at the top, we've seen him doing it in the middle - there's no excuse."

Warner, who was disappointed with the bowling friendly pitches in Sri Lanka, said the Khettarama surface was the worst among the lot.

"The wicket probably wasn't up to scratch in the games. In the last game at Pallekele the wicket was outstanding - I know we played 260, but both teams felt like the wicket was very encouraging. We could hit over the top. There was nice, consistent bounce. Here it was very, very tough." Warner concluded.