Perth: Captain Kumar Sangakkara was 44 not out and Tillakaratne Dilshan added 41 on Sunday as Sri Lanka easily beat Australia by seven wickets in a Twenty20 match at the WACA Ground.
Sri Lanka scored 135-3 with 21 balls remaining after Australia had early problems and notched up 133-8 in its 20 overs. Suraj Randiv took three wickets for 25 runs and was named man of the match for Sri Lanka.
Late hitting from Brad Haddin and Steve Smith saved the home side, which won the toss and batted first, from an even lower total. Australia entered the match having not lost a home Twenty20 game, but was on track to post its lowest score after slumping to 44-5 after 11 overs.
Smith (34 off 23) and Haddin (35 off 30) combined for a 66-run stand to help lift Australia well past the 79 posted against England in Southampton in 2005 before Sri Lanka easily topped the target.
Captain Michael Clarke promoted himself to opener in an attempt to end a slump that had him averaging just 21.45 in the short format of the game. But the experiment failed, with a one-handed catch by Dilhara Fernando while running backward in the deep to end Clarke's innings at 16.
David Warner (2), Shane Watson (4), David Hussey (7) and Cameron White (8) all fell poorly before Haddin and Smith combined and John Hastings (15 off 8) added some late runs.
Brief scores: Australia 133/8 in 20 overs (B Haddin 35, S Smith 34; S Randiv 3/25); Sri Lanka 135/3 in 16.3 overs (K Sangakkara 44 not out, T Dilshan 41).
