While Arjuna Ranatunga, Aravinda Da Silva and Sanath Jayasuriya had carried the baton along with Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralidharan at one point of time, the trio of Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan were destructive at the peak of their career.
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Dilshan is the second Sri Lankan to have 3 One-Day centuries above 150.
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.
Dilshan then proceeded to put on a crucial 73 run partnership for the third wicket, with Dinesh Chandimal.
The teams took the field with the series tied at 1-1, but with the weight of momentum leaning heavily in Sri Lanka’s favour after a record 82-run win in Colombo to level the ODI series last Wednesday.
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews won the toss and opted to bat first, with David Warner making his captaincy bow for the tourists.
“It took a bit of convincing to get me over the line”.
The series, which runs from September 23 to November 3, includes three Twenty20 internationals and as many one-dayers and Tests, the highlight being the day-night Test in Dubai in October. The former captain of Sri Lanka also made his presence felt in the Test arena by composing 5,492 runs at an average of 40.98 in 87 Tests. I think I’ve learned a lot about the way I play, particularly white-ball cricket, from the IPL.
Having been ranked the No.1 Test side by this year’s April 1 cut-off, the Australians enjoyed bonuses from Cricket Australia and an added $1 million from the International Cricket Council, when presented with the championship mace on the eve of the Sri Lankan series.
“Bit disappointed where we ended up”, Mathews said. We can rectify that hopefully in the next game.
Seam bowler James Faulkner took a hat-trick to help Australia bowl Sri Lanka out just shy of its allotted 50 overs.
Sri Lanka s previous best was a 79-run triumph at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in 2003.
Zampa, 24, struck again in his very next over to get another lbw shout in his favour, but this time danger man Mendis was plumb in front of the wicket.
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Perera faced 53 deliveries and hit a six and five boundaries, but had a reprieve on 28 when Zampa dropped an easy catch.
