Starc and Richardson blows Lanka like house of cards

Finch forged two crucial partnerships -- 80 with his opening partner David Warner (26) and 173 with Steve Smith (73 off 59) for the third wicket -- in his 132-ball knock which is his 14th ODI hundred.

He punished the Lankan bowlers with 15 fours and five sixes, two of them gigantic.

Glenn Maxwell provided the late charge with an unbeaten 25-ball 46 but Sri Lanka tied things a bit in the end.

While Warner found the going tough early on, Finch played some exquisite shots to keep the runs flowing.

Back in the team after missing the Bangladesh game due to an injury, Nuwan Pradeep was hit for two fours by Finch.

The Australia skipper then blasted Lasith Malinga for a couple of fours in the seventh over before welcoming Thisara Perera with successive boundaries as Australia scored 53 in the first powerplay.

In the 17th over, Dhananjaya de Silva cleaned up Warner when he tried to make room for himself to play a cut shot.

Finch and Usman Khawaja (10) took Australia to hundred in 23rd over but the left-handed batsman perished soon after his sweep shot was caught by Isuru Udana at deep midwicket.

Smith then joined hands with Finch, who exploded in the 29th over, smashing de Silva out of the park twice besides a boundary to amass 20 runs off the over.

Smith too dealt in boundaries as the duo brought up the 200 in 35.3 overs.

The former skipper completed his fifty in 46 balls, while Finch smashed Perera over deep square for his fifth six of the innings.

Finch and Smith carted Perera for 18 runs in the 41st over with each smashing a couple of fours. Smith then deposited Malinga over deep mid-wicket in the next over.

Udana finally broke the partnership when he had Finch caught at cover by Karunaratne off a slower delivery as Australia slipped to 273 for 3 in 42.4 overs.

Malinga then dismissed Smith with a cracking yorker in the next over, while Udana showed great athleticism to run out Alex Carey and Pat Cummins to stem the run flow.  The team yet with poise made a challenging 334.

Sri Lankan batting at first looked like a mockery at the 300 plus target. It was at once cruising at 87 in just 10 overs and then 186 just for two. That is when Kane Richardson and Mitchell Starc began asking tough questions to the Lankan batters. Sri Lanka after Dimuth Karaunaratne's well heaved 97 runs of 108 balls just lost the steam and never got back.

With the disciplined bowling of the Starc-Richardson duo the Lankans stared down at the barrel. Richardson and Starc scalped 3 and 4 wickets respectively with Pat Cummins hitting the final nail in the coffin, bowled out the Lankans that had a dream start for 247. The mighty Australia now sits pretty at the top of the table with 8 points, winning 4 out its 5 matches. The clinical 87 run margin victory today against Sri Lanka just propels the net run rate to the Aussies favour.