A clinical Sri Lanka rode on captain Mahela Jayawardene's unbeaten half century to beat Australia by eight wickets in a rain-affected match and register their first victory in the cricket tri-series at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.
Chasing a revised target of 152, under the Duckworth-Lewis method, Jayawardene anchored the run chase with a solid unbeaten 67-ball 61 after opener Tillakaratne Dilshan (45) and Kumar Sangakkara (30) laid the foundation for what turned out to be an easy win in the end.
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 the hosts were 88 for 6.
Sri Lanka's target was revised to 152 and they chased it down in just 24.1 overs, thereby collecting a bonus point.
They needed to overhaul the target in 32.4 overs to get a bonus point. They got five points (including one bonus point) from Friday's win and now have seven points.
India, Australia and Sri Lanka have all played four matches each, and India lead the table with 10 points, ahead of Australia (9).
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 first bore the 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.
Lee was taken off by stand-in skipper Ricky Ponting and replaced by Clint McKay as the Sri Lankan batsman scored in singles and doubles to quietly get to 66 for no loss after 10 overs.
Dilshan fell in the 12th over to a McKay length ball wide of off stump after he threw his bat at it and got a thick edge straight to slip fielder David Hussey.
He faced 41 balls and hit four boundaries and a six for his 45.
The run-rate slowed down a bit after Dilshan's departure and Sangakkara reached a personal milestone, becoming the tenth batsman in the world, and third Sri Lankan after Sanath Jayasuriya and Jayawardene, to score 10,000 ODI runs with a single off left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty in the 18th over.
Soon after reaching the milestone Sangakkara punished Doherty again for a four and six in the same over, but two overs later fell to Lee, caught by Doherty at mid-on while trying for another big hit.
Sangakkara, who was playing in his 315th match, faced 29 balls for his 30 and hit four boundaries and a six.
By the time Sangakkara was out, Sri Lanka were on the verge of victory at 133 for 2. They took another three overs to reach the target of 152 which they secured through a leg-bye of Chandimal (six not out).
Jayawardene, who hit his 63rd career fifty today, carried his bat through the run chase, facing 67 balls and hitting five fours.
Earlier, the Lankans stifled Australia with disciplined bowling and fielding to shoot them out for a modest total.
But for a 49-run stand between David Hussey (58) and No 10 Mitchell Starc (17 not out) for the ninth wicket -- the highest stand in the Australians innings -- the total would have been lower.
Hussey and Starc batted sensibly for eight overs to give respectability to the Australian innings after the top-order came a cropper and they were reduced to 88 for 6 at the rain interruption.
Hussey, when on eight, was, however, fortunate to survive a dropped chance from Lasith Malinga at third man.
The Sri Lankans also effected three run-outs to add to the misery of the home side, which was bundled out with one ball left.
For Sri Lanka, Farveez Maharoof and Thisara Perera bagged two wickets each for 18 and 29 runs respectively. Malinga, Angelo Mathews and Rangana Herath grabbed one each.
Malinga struck the early blow, dismissing dangerous opener David Warner (13) with a slower delivery.
Warner punished Malinga with a pair of crisp boundaries but struggled with the bowler's change of pace and ultimately lobbed a catch to mid-on in the fifth over.
Maharoof, in his return match, used a similar slower delivery to account for stand-in skipper Ricky Ponting (2), who was foxed into an early stroke and offered a simple return catch in the 11th over.
Next over, Thisara Perera engineered the run-out of Matthew Wade (15) with a lightning throw to snap the stumps and soon Angelo Mathews joined the party to account for Michael Hussey (13).
Michael Hussey, who returned to the Australian side after being rested for the Adelaide match, was looking good as he hit a six off Mathews, but, next ball, failed to negotiate a delivery too close to his body and edged behind.
Peter Forrest (16) was the second victim of Maharoof's tight length and line and offered a catch to the slips. And before rain intervened, Daniel Christian (6) fell lbw to Perera as Australian sauntered to 88 for six.
After the rain break, Clint McKay (3) and Bret Lee (0) fell in quick succession before David Hussey and Starc took the score past 150 with some sensible batting.
David Hussey was finally out in the penultimate over after hitting six fours in his 64-ball knock of 58.
