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Australia beats Sri Lanka by six wickets

Adam Gilchrist snapped out of a form slump to score 116 runs from 105 balls and lead Australia to a six-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in a tri-series limited-overs cricket match Sunday.

Replacing rested skipper Ricky Ponting for the second straight game, Gilchrist helped Australia score 237-4 from 41 overs in reply to Sri Lanka's 233-8.
Gilchrist improved his captaincy record in one-day matches to nine wins from 10 matches.

Gilchrist and Simon Katich (82) put on 191 for the first wicket, the third-highest opening stand in Australian one-day history.

Only Geoff Marsh and David Boon's 212 against India in 1986-87 and Gilchrist and Mark Waugh's 206 against the West Indies in 2000 were better than Sunday night's partnership.

Earlier Stuart Clark (2-40), who won the third seamer's position ahead of supersub Brett Dorey, and Brett Lee (2-42) led the way as the Sri Lankans were restricted to 233.

Sri Lanka managed just 11 boundaries in its innings, a feat Katich and Gilchrist equaled within 14.2 overs.

Gilchrist had gone seven one-day innings without a 50 since hitting 103 in the final match against the World XI on Oct. 7.

Earlier Mahela Jayawardene and Russel Arnold made half-centuries to lead Sri Lanka's revival from 27 for three.

Jayawardene made 69 and Arnold 56 in a 121-run fourth-wicket partnership which helped Sri Lanka overcome a top-order collapse and set a competitive total after it had won the toss and batted.

Both teams entered the match without their regular captains - Chaminda Vaas took over from Marvan Atapattu, who has a back injury.

Vaas made a predictable decision to bat on winning the toss but his confidence was shaken when Sri Lanka lost early wickets and were reduced to a crawling run rate in the opening overs.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara, the two dangermen among the top order, were dismissed within the first eight overs and when Jehan Mubarak was out in the 11th over, Sri Lanka was reduced to 27 for 3.

Jayasuriya returned to the Sri Lankan team after missing its previous match against Australia in Adelaide with injuries to his shoulder, back and hamstrings.

His return seemed to substantially strengthen Sri Lanka's batting but he hadn't scored when he was caught by wicketkeeper Gilchrist off Lee in the third over.

Sangakkara, Sri Lanka's most consistent batsman in the series, had made six when he was brilliantly run out by Andrew Symonds - the first of three runouts in the innings - to leave Sri Lanka 16 for two in the eighth over.

The crisis deepened when Mubarak was caught by Brad Hodge off Clark, leaving Sri Lanka with three of its most productive batsmen out and two new batsmen at the crease.

Jayawardene and Arnold, calling on their joint experience of almost 400 one-day matches, overcame the pressure and the problems of a difficult pitch to methodically rebuild Sri Lanka's innings.

Source: foxsports.com/cricket