A clinical Sri Lanka rode on captain Mahela Jayawardene's unbeaten half century to register their first win of the cricket tri-series with an eight-wicket crushing of Australia in a rain-affected match in Sydney on Friday.
Chasing a revised target of 152 for a win under the Duckworth-Lewis method, Jayawardene (61 not out) anchored the run chase with a solid 67-ball unbeaten knock after opener Tillakaratne Dilshan (45) and Kumar Sangakkara (30) laid the foundation for an easy win at the SCG.
Earlier, electing to bat, Australia were all out for 158 in 40.5 overs after the match was reduced to 41-overs-a-side affair with rain interrupting the tie at the end of the 26th over when Australia were 88 for six.
The target for Sri Lanka was revised to 152 and they chased it down in just 24.1 overs, thereby collecting a bonus point also. They needed to overhaul the target in 32.4 overs to get a bonus point.
Sri Lanka got five points (including one bonus point) from today's win and they now have seven points.
All the three teams have played four matches each and India now lead the table with 10 points, ahead of Australia (nine). Each team has two matches left in the series before the finals.
Sri Lanka were in cruise mode from the beginning of the run chase with the openers Dilshan and Jayawardene putting on 74 runs from 11.4 overs before the former was out.
Left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc bore the first brunt of Dilshan's aggression as the Lankan smashed a short of length delivery over square leg boundary for a six in the fourth over.
Next over, it was the turn of Brett Lee to face the wrath of Dilshan who hit the veteran pacer for three consecutive fours to take 14 runs from the fifth over.
Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene(c), Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Rangana Herath, Nuwan Kulasekara, Farveez Maharoof, Lasith Malinga, Thissara Perera, Dhammika Prasad, Kumar Sangakkara(w), Sachithra Senanayake, Upul Tharanga, Lahiru Thirimanne, Chanaka Welegedara, Thilan Samaraweera
Australia: Daniel Christian, Xavier Doherty, Peter Forrest, Ryan Harris, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Brett Lee, Clint McKay, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Ricky Ponting(c), Matthew Wade(w), David Warner
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