Nathan Bracken's sharp seam bowling helped Australia beat Sri Lanka to register the first win of the CB Series, at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.
Bracken's career-best effort of 5-46 helped bundle Lanka out for 125 in 31.3 overs as the hosts won the game by a comprehensive 128 runs. They took five points from this game to move to the top of the league, ahead of India on 4 points.
For Sri Lanka, only Kumar Sangakkara shone bright but brief, scoring 42 from 41 balls - including four fours in a Brett Lee over.
Earlier in the day, half centuries from Adam Gilchrist and a doughty unbeaten 77 from Michael Clarke helped Australia post a fighting 253.
Clarke's innings, along with some happy hour hitting by James Hopes (34 from 29 balls) helped Australia trickle over the 250 mark, after their middle order had been restricted to some fine bowling by the experienced Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan.
After openers Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden put on a swift 65 for the opening wicket, Lanka kept picking up wickets regularly to stem the flow of runs.
Captain Ricky Ponting's poor form continued. On Friday, he made just 9 while the in-form Andrew Symonds made 12. Both were picked up by Vaas, who had figures of 10-1-34-2.
The Lankan innings got off to a poor start. The openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga scored 17 between them and captain Mahela Jayawardene made 6.
Rain was forecast for today's game. The previous two games in the Series - both featuring India - had to abandoned and the points split after rain made play impossible.
The met office had predicted partly cloudy conditions with chances of rain, but luckily, that wasn't the case.
Bracken takes 5, Lanka slump to 125
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