A remarkable half-century from Aaron Finch has lifted Australia to a seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka for an unassailable 3-1 lead in the one-day international series.
Chasing a relatively modest victory target of 213, Australia reached 4-217 to haul in the target off just 31 overs.
Finch laid the platform for the successful run chase with a stunning innings of 55 off 19 balls, including three sixes.
The opener hit 16 from the first four balls he faced and eventually passed 50 off just 18 balls, equalling the Australian record mark for the fastest half century held by Simon O’Donnell and Glenn Maxwell.
Stand-in captain David Warner looked briefly set to get in on the act but fell for 19 off 16 balls, while Usman Khawaja was out for a second-ball duck in his first match of the series.
Sachith Pathirana (3-37) took the first three wickets to fall as a remarkable looking scoreboard had Australia at 3-97 off 7.1 overs.
George Bailey steadied the ship by continuing his recent good form with a confident 90 not out as he and Travis Head (40) added 100 for the fourth wicket.
Head survived a major scare on 13 when he was bowled, only for the replay to show Dilruwan Perera had delivered a no ball.
Head eventually fell with the winning target in sight and it was left to wicketkeeper Mathew Wade to win the match in style with a six down the ground.
Australia’s series win comes in the wake of a much-criticised 3-0 defeat in the Test series.
Earlier allrounder John Hastings was the hero with the ball as the Victorian returned career-best figures of 6-45.
Opener Dhananjaya de Silva was the mainstay of the Sri Lankan innings with a controlled knock of 76 from 87 deliveries.
De Silva and captain Angelo Mathews put on 84 for the fourth wicket, before the latter retired hurt with a calf strain and Sri Lanka never recovered their momentum.
Mathews returned at the fall of the eighth wicket and was eventually last man out off the final ball of the innings for 40.
Mitchell Starc (1-51) claimed a wicket in the opening over for the fourth successive match, but for once the paceman was not the headline act with the ball.
The final match of the series will be played in Pallekele on Sunday, with a two-match Twenty20 series to follow.
Ross
Guest
Not sure how khawaja can develop any confidence, its more the selections being made. How did it make sense to drop Khawaja for Henriques in test matches when khawaja was averaging 100 leading into the tests. How does it make sense to drop khawaja from the T20s when he was our best batsman in the T20 world cup. Why did we bring in Bolland for Hazelwood when Hazelwood is one of our best bowlers. Why did we not bring Zampa or Ahmad to the test team after SOK was injured instead of Holland who is a honest bowler but didn't threaten the sri lankan's at all. Rod Marsh needs to have his performance looked at closely.
Prosen
Guest
First time australia batted really well on this tour.
Perry Bridge
Guest
The FInch vs Warner I was only referring to this SL series - Warner 38 from 4 hits, and Finch 145 from 4 hits. I've grown to not mind Warner in tests - and the irony is he got his start in T20s but that's his weakest format (well behind Finch for example - sub 10 on avg and sub 10ish on S/R but still healthy at 139). Warner was all at sea in the first test but he does show seemingly better application and capacity to adapt than some of his team mates - that he followed up with a pair of 40s and a 2nd innings 68 in the last test showed perhaps not a mastery of the conditions but a capacity to fight it out and place value on his wicket. The ODI's again show that he's not entirely comfortable - which makes his test efforts all the more worthy. Contrast to fellow opener Burns who was so clueless that he had to be replaced. But - that's what "TESTS" should be about.
Dangertroy
Guest
I'd say Finch is the headline, not the focus of the article - it's more a recap of the match. Warner isn't a white ball specialist - He's a multi-format player. Of all the formats, ODI's have tended to be his weakest for some reason. His brief (and Finch's) is to go out there and get Australia off to a fiery start; so he is going to get out early half the time, but when he gets going he can put australia in an unstoppable position. He and Finch have pretty similar records over basically the same number of matches.That said, his captaincy seems to be going well, which is a nice plus.
Perry Bridge
Guest
Hmmm - I thought this article was more about Finch's equal fastest Australian ODI 50 - which I'd like to pay tribute to. The job of getting the innings off to a flier while the ball is hard - achieved with aplomb with a tremendous irony again being that the supposed short form specialist Warner - continues to struggle both by contrast and in absolute terms. Khawaja seems hopelessly out of confidence. Was he hard done by on the LBW? One could argue Finch might have deserved the umpires benefit of the doubt but as it is the DRS then supports the umpire with the benefit of the doubt rather than the batter. Hastings a fine 6 wicket haul and Wade 4 catches. And Bailey a good day out - not a bad outing from those (counting Hastings despite originally coming from NSW) from south of the Murrumbidgee.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Your point about playing cricket socially is perhaps more apt than you realise – I suspect for a lot of guys of that background they don’t have the time or money to dedicate themselves to a career as a semi-pro cricketer. That being said, cultural background is no guarantee of success – Khawaja is a lousy player of spin.
Swampy
Guest
Bailey is without a doubt a positive influence on the team. When he plays we generally win. His ODI record is pretty solid. It's a pity he's a touch off at test level though it wouldn't hurt to play him in India. George is not a spring chicken though - it would be good if we could find someone who could actually bat consistently well on the sub-continent. We've had mass migration from the sub-continent to Australia for the last 20 years. When I drive around in summer the only people I see out playing cricket for fun at the park are of sub-continental heritage. Why then, after 20 years, are there virtually no cricketers at shield level (or even club level) from these ethnic backgrounds? Should we be focussing better at grassroots at finding the 'Sunday park' talent? Maybe widening our net might help develop some new talent that will cope better with the conditions in the sub-continent (& elsewhere). Just feel that Cricket Australia has too narrow a view of Australian cricket perhaps.
VivGilchrist
Guest
I tend to agree with you. It seems like he leaves his best for the sub-continent. Test cricket is different, but in all honesty with the way our batsmen have performed over there, he really couldn't do much worse. Horse-for-courses all the way, we do it with our bowlers. I'm sick of seeing us pantsed in Asia, let's change our selection approach. Oh, nice innings by Finch....
Dangertroy
Guest
George bailey has got to be considered for the India test tour. I know that one day form shouldn't be an indicator for test performance, but his game seems to suit the subcontinent. I'd like to see him do well in the shield this summer first, but otherwise what have we got to lose by selecting him? Plus... Australia has won every test he has played in, so perhaps he can be our good luck charm?