Sri Lanks 146 all out from 18 overs. Munaweera 37, Siriwardana 35.

Australia 6/187 from 20 overs. Klinger 62, Finch 53.

Australia win by 41 runs

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ADELAIDE, Wednesday: Leg-spinner Adam Zampa claimed three wickets to bowl Australia to victory and avoid a Twenty20 series wipeout against Sri Lanka in Adelaide on Wednesday.

Man-of-the-match Zampa, who was left out of the previous match as the Sri Lankans won to clinch the three-match series, captured three for 25 at a crucial stage as Australia went on to win by 41 runs.

“It is always nice to bowl the middle overs and it is very easy when you have a start like that,” Zampa said.

“Sri Lanka have very fearless players, sometimes it can be tough to bowl at them.”

Openers Aaron Finch and Michael Klinger hit half-centuries as the Australians, with their leading stars in India for this week’s Test series, set Sri Lanka 188 runs to win.

But the Sri Lankans could not reproduce another of their blazing late innings comebacks where they won the first two T20 games off the last ball.

“I thought we played some fantastic cricket tonight. A complete performance like this makes the last match even more heart-breaking,” skipper Finch said.

“When you have Klinger at the other end, he lets you play your shots. We have been guilty of not converting starts. Today we had two fifties and Dunk and Head chipping in.”

Sri Lanka’s chase was given early impetus by Dilshan Munaweera, who smacked 37 from 25 balls, but from 41 without loss in the fourth over the tourists lost traction and slid to 76 for four in the 10th over.

Zampa claimed the vital wicket of man of the series Asela Gunaratne, leg before wicket for four in the 10th over and the tourists were unable to arouse another of their sensational finishes to beat Australia’s total.

Gunaratne slammed a pulse-racing 84 to power Sri Lanka to a last-ball victory against Australia on Sunday after clubbing 52 off 37 balls in the opening win in Melbourne.

“Beating Australia in home conditions is a tough thing to do. The guys did a good job,” skipper Upul Tharanga said.

“The innings Asela Gunaratne played in the second game in Geelong was amazing.”

James Faulkner also took three wickets with his clever changes of pace to maintain Australia’s advantage.

It was Sri Lanka’s first defeat in six T20 internationals in Australia.

Skipper Finch was dropped by Munaweera before he had scored on the fifth ball of the Australian innings and went on to cash in with 53 off 32 balls with three sixes and five fours.

Klinger proved the mainstay of the innings with 62 from 43 deliveries with six fours and a six.

The opening pair put on 79 runs for the first wicket.

Ben Dunk (28 from 21 balls) and Travis Head (30 from 16) contributed useful knocks to get to 179 for two before a late flurry of wickets cost Australia a chance to top a 200 total. Sri Lanka claimed four wickets for eight off the final 11 deliveries with Lasith Malinga taking two for 35 and Chamara Kapugedera taking three catches in the deep.

Australia’s first aim on Wednesday (February 22) would be to salvage some pride, having already conceded the series with last-ball losses in both earlier games.

Aaron Finch, Australia’s captain for the series, didn’t mince words when he said after losing the first match that his country had underperformed in the format ‘since forever’.

In the absence of several big names including Steve Smith, the regular captain, David Warner and Mitchell Starc, the batsmen of Big Bash League fame have done a fairly good job. Michael Klinger has been steady at the top while Travis Head, Ben Dunk and Moises Henriques have quick runs against their name.

The inexperience, though, is telling in the bowling department as Australia has allowed Sri Lanka to twice chase down competitive totals despite having it in bother at various points. The likes of Andrew Tye and Billy Stanlake have not stepped up, giving the opponent an opening it has barged through. It has also left too much to do for the likes of James Faulkner and Pat Cummins.

Credit, however, should also go to the visitor. Sri Lanka came into the series having been whitewashed 5-0 by South Africa in the one-dayers, but was still high on confidence as it had won the preceding T20I series 2-1.

Sri Lanka now seems to have identified a brand of cricket that’s working wonders for it in the shortest format. What’s most refreshing about its turnaround is the freedom with which its batsmen have operated; irrespective of the situation, Sri Lanka’s batting mantra seems to be attack.

The onslaught in both games has been led by Asela Gunaratne, the latest hero. The right-hand middle-order batsman has twice helped Sri Lanka to victories in tough chases with half-centuries. The second game in particular was an absolute heist, as he helped his side hunt down 174 from 40 for 5 with a stunning, unbeaten 46-ball 84. Now with a maiden Indian Premier League contract in hand, Gunaratne will once look to re-establish his capabilities.

But Sri Lanka hasn’t been a one-man team as Dilshan Munaweera and Chamara Kapugedera have made vital contributions with the bat. It will, however, miss Niroshan Dickwella at the top, the wicketkeeper-batsman having been suspended on Tuesday for two limited-overs matches after showing dissent at the umpire’s decision in the previous game which pushed his cumulative demerit points beyond the minimum four.

The bowling too has been bolstered by Lasith Malinga’s return. Despite not playing for a year, Malinga has showed no signs of rustiness, sending down his famed yorkers with precision. Nuwan Kulasekara too will be on a high, having picked up four wickets in the second T20I.

Australia swept Sri Lanka 2-0 when they faced off in the T20Is in the island nation last year. On Wednesday, Sri Lanka will have an opportunity to return the favour, and even go one better.

Teams (from):

Australia: Aaron Finch (capt), Pat Cummins, Ben Dunk, James Faulkner, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Michael Klinger, Tim Paine (wk), Jhye Richardson, Billy Stanlake, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.

Sri Lanka: Upul Tharanga (capt), Vikum Sanjaya, Asela Gunaratne, Chamara Kapugedara, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Kusal Mendis (wk), Dilshan Munaweera, Sachith Pathirana, Seekkuge Prasanna, Lakshan Sandakan, Dasun Shanaka, Milinda Siriwardana, Isuru Udana.

A career-best 178 from 113 balls not only lifted the Proteas to a crushing six-wicket win in the first outing of the five-match ODI Series, it spelled out a very clear challenge to Australia’s revamped bowling attack.

That the absence of strike bowlers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood means South Africa’s batters carry no fear, even with a couple of their most potent one-day batsmen missing from today’s game.

De Kock has often been criticised, occasionally ostracised, for not making the most of his unquestioned talent and has spent periods on the outer of South Africa’s Test and limited-overs outfits.

Quick Single: The records that de Kock demolished

He was even quoted as suggesting some Australian players were using injury as a reason to take time out of the gruelling international schedule that sees them in South Africa just weeks after their two-month visit to Sri Lanka.

But rather like former opener Herschelle Gibbs, the man he this evening ousted as owner of the highest score by a South African in an ODI against Australia, it would seem that consistency is the only obvious flaw in an otherwise complete batting repertoire.

Given that South Africa completed their pursuit with almost 15 overs to spare and just as de Kock was warming to his work – his final 78 runs coming from just 39 balls with seven sixes – it’s not unreasonable to think he might have surpassed the record ODI score of 264 set by India’s Rohit Sharma had his team been set a loftier pursuit.

And had he not holed out to a clever diving catch at deep backward square for the second-highest one-day score by a South African batsman – which remains Gary Kirsten’s 188 against the UAE in the 1996 World Cup – having clubbed an extraordinarily diverse range of 16 boundaries and 11 sixes.

While his cause was doubtless aided by some lacklustre bowling and sloppy fielding – the most costly being Mitchell Marsh’s attempted overhead mark at deep fine leg that spilled over the boundary when de Kock was 57 – so crisp was his stroke play that most of the Australians ran to congratulate him on his knock when he surrendered his wicket.

Shortly before they retired to their dressing room to contemplate the scope of their defeat – the six-wicket loss being the heftiest defeat they’ve suffered having posted a score above 275 since South Africa chased down 327 for the loss of only three wickets in Harare two years ago.

When de Kock and his opening partner Rilee Rossouw were flaying the tourists all over Centurion in the opening hour it seemed that margin might be 10 wickets.

Rossouw was not named in the initial squad for the five-match series against Australia as he was not deemed to have fully recovered the dislocated right shoulder he suffered while playing against the same opponent during the recent ODI tri-series in the Caribbean.

He was added when the Proteas’ skipper AB de Villiers was ruled out of the campaign – and the next two months – earlier in the week because of impending surgery to fix a painful elbow complaint.

If the Australians privately felt that was a stroke of good fortune, they were very publicly treated to an array of strokes that highlighted it was anything but.

Rossouw and de Kock flew past 50 in the seventh over, beyond 100 in the 14th and would have likely reeled in the world champions’ tally with about 10 overs to spare if the former had not succumbed to ambition.

The reverse sweep he aimed at Adam Zampa’s opening delivery brought Australia’s sole joy in more than an hour of toil, and vindicated those who felt the leg-spinner might have been employed earlier.

Although Zampa’s skipper was clearly of the view that turning the ball into a pair of left-handers in such murderous form threatened a fast-track to failure.

As it turned out, that was the very path the Australians found themselves as Rossouw’s removal only egged on de Kock who reached his century in the most emphatic manner.

Crunching new cap Dan Worrall over the rope, fence, baying fans and very nearly the rolling grass embankment at mid-wicket with one of the cleanest strikes of his bludgeoning 74-ball knock to that moment.

A pummelling that continued unabated until he departed the field to rapturous scenes in the 34th over.

Along the way the 23-year-old provided a master class for the Australian top-order who had all made starts but failed to cash in on the sort of perfect batting wicket they spent the previous two months craving.

The left-hander picked the gaps adroitly at the start of his innings, muscled the ball more violently as the field restrictions were lifted and then heaped humiliation on a hapless attack as he single-handedly made a mockery of the target that a decade ago would have appeared laughably large.

Upon initial glance, Australia’s 50-over tally of 294 appeared challenging if not outright formidable given that only two teams had successfully chased down bigger scores in almost 40 ODIs played at Centurion.

Less reassuring was the knowledge one of those teams was the current iteration of South Africa against England in the most recent one-dayer at the venue, largely on the back of a 239-run opening stand between de Kock and Hashim Amla.

Amla’s withdrawal from the match due to a viral infection – as well as the longer-term absence of AB de Villiers because of elbow surgery – might have mitigated some of the tourists’ apprehension.

But they would have begun their bowling innings in front of a heaving local crowd nursing a nagging feeling they had pulled up 30-40 runs shy of where they might have ended given the speed of their start.

Jet propelled by David Warner who outscored his recalled opening partner Aaron Finch 36 runs to eight when the pair reached 50 for the first wicket (after eight overs), the Australians maintained a scoring rate of a run per ball for much of the first half of their innings.

However, as the road safety warnings tell us with haste comes carelessness and every time the world champions appeared set to grab a hold of the game another wicket fell off the back.

Warner miscued to mid-off trying to force on the rise, and Finch fell to a line-ball ground-level catch that Wayne Parnell smartly plucked at short fine leg to slow the charge.

Finch’s wicket was the first in international cricket for 20-year-old all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo, a member of South Africa’s triumphant Under-19 World Cup squad in 2014, but his second that arrived three balls later is one he’s likely to treasure through to retirement

When he beat the bat of Steve Smith, who seemed so affronted by the youngster’s temerity that he wasted his team’s sole review on a delivery headed for the top of middle, with the Australia needing to view just one slow motion replay on the big screed to realise he had erred.

Having got off the mark with an imperious flick for six beyond backward square, Mitchell Marsh maintained the momentum with 31 from 25 balls until his guided a catch to the keeper.

And Travis Head fell in fashion hauntingly similar to the recent Sri Lanka adventure when he failed to read – or reach – leg spinner Imran Tahir’s wrong-un and was smartly stumped.

Throughout much of this flurry that saw Australia in danger of being prematurely bowled out at 5-172 midway through their 50-over complement stood George Bailey, taking his time to find his tempo and his range.

Not that his knock was devoid of risk.

Not for his batting partners, anyway.

A misjudged single in the 21st over would have accounted for Travis Head had Parnell’s throw hit the stumps, and another one seven overs later did for Matthew Wade who departed the middle with more than a few words of advice for his fellow Tasmanian.

But true to character, Bailey did not allow a couple of setbacks ruffle him from his task.

He fashioned a crucial if conservative 79-run union with John Hastings for the seventh wicket that saw Hastings post his maiden ODI half-century at a scoring rate almost double that of his specialist batting partner.

However, having carried Australia into the final five overs with a few wickets up their sleeve, the innings then misfired on re-entry as a succession of batters holed out in the final phase with just 23 runs scored from the last 30 deliveries.

Two of which yielded wickets for Dale Steyn on his return to the Proteas’ ODI line-up, his first one-day scalps in almost a year salving the reality they both came via wild slogs to the outfield to end a spell that cost 65 runs.

His second-most expensive in 21 ODIs against his arch-rivals.

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first and managed only 128-9 in 20 overs. Dhananjaya de Silva scored 62 for his maiden Twenty20 international half-century

Legspinner Adam Zampa and fast bowler James Faulkner took three wickets each for Australia.

Maxwell and captain David Warner started the Australian chase aggressively and shared 93 runs in 51 balls But from there the tourists lost six wickets for 27 runs but went over the line with 13 deliveries to spare thanks to the good opening stand. Retiring Tillakaratne Dilshan had best figures 2-8 for Sri Lanka.

Maxwell continued his superior form the first match and reached his half-century in 18 balls, the fastest by an Australian. He made an unbeaten 145 in the first match to take Australia to a 85-run win.

He was bowled by legspinner Seekkuge Prasanna off the inside edge.

Left-arm spinner Sachith Pathirana brought Sri Lanka strongly back into the game taking two wickets in the tenth over after Australia had experimented with the batting order by promoting lower order batsmen.

Moises Henriques was sent in at No. 3 but he was out for one stumped off Pathirana. Two balls later Warner (25) was out caught by Thisara Perera off Pathirana.

Dilshan took a wicket off the last ball of his international cricket when he had Matthew Wade (14) caught by Dinesh Chandimal leaving Australia 120-6.

Travis Head hit a six off Pathirana to seal victory.

Australia finishes its tour to Sri Lanka on a winning note having won the one-day international series 4-1 and winning the Twenty20 series 2-0 after losing the test series 3-0.

Captain Warner said that said playing on Sri Lankan pitches was tough but commended his players for their determination and fight to overcome the challenge.

Warner however was disappointed that his team lost wickets consistently after a good start.

“We probably saw there the lack of consistency when we lost a wicket after a good start,” Warner said.

“Something we want to keep improving on. It’s disappointing we lost five or six for 20 in eight overs in the middle after being none for 90. But obviously it is fantastic to get a win and win the series.”

Dilshan said that he is disappointed to leave the game with a loss.

“We tried our best to win the match but we were about 20 runs short; and also while bowling we gave away too many runs in the first six overs,” Dilshan said.

“It’s time to relax now. It was pressure playing for the country. Now I feel lighter.”

The International Cricket Council paid tribute to Dilshan calling him an “epitome of the modern-day cricketer with his ability to adapt.”

Dilshan is among the 11 players to have scored a century in all formats of cricket.

“Dilshan’s accomplishments across all three formats are fantastic. He started as a solid batsman but adjusted to the demands of the faster-paced game and came to be known as one of the best in ODI and T20 Internationals,” the ICC statement quoted its chief executive David Richardson as saying.

“He will be remembered for his innovative strokes and as a destructive opener. He was also a useful spin bowler and an outstanding fielder. We congratulate Dilshan for a fine career and wish him every success in the future.” Richardson said.

Dilshan leaves international cricket with 17,671 runs in 497 games across all formats. He also had 151 international wickets.

Australia edged out Sri Lanka by two wickets to spoil Tillakaratne Dilshan’s one-day farewell and go 2-1 up in the five-match series on Sunday.

Opting to bat first, Sri Lanka were all out for 226 with four balls remaining, a total built around Dinesh Chandimal’s gutsy 102 in an otherwise poor batting display by the hosts in the third match of the series. Dilshan’s fluent 42 in his one-day swansong was the second highest score and the former Sri Lanka captain quit the format with 10,290 runs, including 22 centuries from 330 matches. He will play the two Twenty20 matches against Australia next month before retiring from international cricket.
Australia wobbled early in their reply but George Bailey (70) featured in two fifty-plus partnerships as the tourists chased down the target with four overs to spare. Earlier, Dilshan was given a guard of honour by his team mates when the 39-year-old went out to bat but the team looked in trouble after being reduced to 23 for two in the fourth over.

Dilshan joined forces with Chandimal to steady the ship with a 73-run partnership before he fell to an Adam Zampa full toss. Australian fielders shook hands with Dilshan, who received a standing ovation from the sellout crowd at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium.

Warner and other Aussie players congratulating Dilshan for a very successful cricketing career (AFP)

Zampa dismissed Angelo Mathews in his next over but Chandimal maintained his red hot 50-overs form and brought up his fourth one-day century before being the last man out, holing out to Zampa off James Faulkner. Chandimal’s last seven one-day scores are 52, 62, 63, 53, 80 not out, 48 and 102. Leading the side in absence of regular skipper Steve Smith, who has returned home to rest, David Warner marshalled his bowlers well to restrict the hosts to a modest total.

Mathews dented Australia’s top order, however, cheaply dismissing Warner and Shaun Marsh as the touring side slumped to 44 for three in the ninth over. Bailey added 62 runs with Travis Head (36) to put Australia’s chase back on track and put on 81 runs with Matthew Wade (42) to take the side close to victory.

Zampa, who had claimed 3-38 with the ball, scored the winning run but Bailey bagged the man-of-the-match award. The teams stay put in Dambulla for the fourth one-dayer on Wednesday.

Matthew Wade top-scored for the touring side with a fighting 76 but Sri Lanka’s biggest win over Australia in terms of runs means the teams move to Dambulla for Sunday’s third one-dayer with the five-match series level at 1-1. Australia needed a strong start to chase down such a big total but Thisara Perera (3-33) dismissed openers David Warner and Aaron Finch to reduce the tourists to 16 for two.

Skipper Steve Smith (30) rekindled Australia’s hopes of a fightback and Wade showed tremendous grit down the order but it was not enough to complete what would have been a record chase at the ground. Left-arm spinner Amila Aponso was the pick of the Sri Lankan bowler, claiming 4-18 in his second one-day international.

Sri Lanka posted 288 before being all out in the 49th over, losing their last five wickets for 27 runs. After opting to bat, Sri Lanka lost openers Danushka Gunathilaka and Tillakaratne Dilshan off successive deliveries inside the first 19 balls. Kusal Mendis (69) and Dinesh Chandimal (48) revived the hosts with a 125-run stand.

Mendis cruised to his second successive fifty but Adam Zampa (3-42) dismissed both batsmen. Kusal Perera (54) added 103 runs with skipper Mathews (57) to consolidate Sri Lanka’s position but Faulkner and Mitchell Starc (3-53) ripped out the lower order.

Faulkner trapped Perera lbw with the final delivery of his eighth over. The all-rounder dismissed Mathews with the first ball of his next over, caught at long-off, and bowled Thisara Perera with his next to become the sixth Australian cricketer to claim a one-day hat-trick.

Warner’s 55 not out saw Australia home with almost 25 overs to spare after the West Indies earlier collapsed from 50 for one to 116 all out from 32.3 overs.

Australia then wasted little time in getting to the modest target, Warner anchoring the effort to ensure a victory that was never in doubt despite the loss of three wickets for seven runs with the end in sight.

Spinners Sunil Narine, with two wickets in one over, and Sulieman Benn caused the discomfort but it was not enough to save the hosts.

The emphatic victory earned Australia a bonus point to move ahead of the West Indies in the three-team standings before Tuesday’s final game at Providence against South Africa.

“Our batting is a real concern,” said West Indies coach Phil Simmons.

“The bowlers and fielding side are doing a great job but we need to get it together with the bat for the next two matches in St Kitts.”

Boosted by a four-wicket win in the tournament-opener against the South Africans at the same venue two days earlier, the West Indies plummeted back down to earth at the feet of the World Cup-holders, whose frontline spinners Nathan Lyon and Adam Zampa did the bulk of the damage with three wickets apiece after the usual effective opening burst from Mitchell Starc. “I really enjoyed it out there on that pitch,” Zampa enthused after his performance.

“South Africa will be a big challenge though on Tuesday with so many quality batsmen.”

Playing his first international match for more than six months after being sidelined by injury, the left-arm fast bowler breached the defences of openers Andre Fletcher and Johnson Charles to finish with figures of two for 37 from nine overs.

He showed signs of rustiness in delivering five wides and a no-ball, however his lethal pace proved more than a handful for the West Indies top order.

Starc’s tally of ODI wickets is now at 92 in his 47th match and should he take eight more before the end of this competition he will eclipse Pakistan’s Saqlain Mustaq for the record as the fastest to 100 wickets in terms of matches played in this format of the international game.

Charles topscored with a chancy 22 while all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite was last out for 21, Aaron Finch taking the catch at long-on to give Zampa his third wicket.

Notwithstanding the turgid surface, the home batsmen contributed to their swift demise with a succession of poor shots, exemplified by Darren Bravo’s loose cover-drive at seamer Mitchell Marsh which offered a straightforward catch to Zampa at cover.

Lyon, the experienced off-spinner, had an almost instant impact in disposing of Marlon Samuels and Kieron Pollard off successive deliveries.