Australia beat Lanka, spoil Dilshan’s farewell

Dambulla, August 28 

Australia edged out Sri Lanka by two wickets to spoil Tillakaratne Dilshan's One-day farewell and go 2-1 up in the five-match series on Sunday. Opting to bat first, Sri Lanka were all out for 226 with four balls remaining, a total built around Dinesh Chandimal's gutsy 102 in an otherwise poor batting display by the hosts in the third match of the series. Dilshan's fluent 42 in his One-day swansong was the second highest score and the former Sri Lanka captain quit the format with 10,290 runs, including 22 centuries from 330 matches.

He will play the two Twenty20 matches against Australia next month before retiring from international cricket.

Australia wobbled early in their reply but George Bailey (70) featured in two fifty-plus partnerships as the tourists chased down the target with four overs to spare. He added 62 runs with Travis Head (36) to put Australia's chase back on track and then 81 runs with Matthew Wade (42) to take the side close to victory.

Earlier, Dilshan was given a guard of honour by his team mates when the 39-year-old went out to bat. — Reuters 

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 226 (Chandimal 102, Zampa 3-38); Australia 227 for 8 (Bailey 70, Wade 42).