Within a few minutes of Sangakkara’s landmark, his partner-in-crime Mahela Jayawardene stamped his return to form by reaching his fifty — a first since Dubai in 2011, eight innings ago. The away fans went ecstatic, forcing Jayawardene to keep his bat up in the air for that moment longer. The Australian spectators clapped too, but this time from firmly within their seats.

By the time Lankan supporters went up one last time in the 25th over of the second innings, they were the only ones left at the SCG. For as the last of the Australian faithful made their way to the exits of this marvel of a cricket stadium, Jayawardene panthered across the 22 yards in the middle to guide Sri Lanka to the most one-sided victory of this series so far, throwing the competition wide open by the half-way mark of the group stages.

A morale booster

The resounding eight-wicket victory — with a bonus point — by Jayawardene & Co did a few unforeseen things to the health of this tournament. Firstly, the sixth ODI of this tri-series on Friday punctured the image of the invincible Australians, one that had been acquired over this 2011-12 summer. Secondly, Sri Lanka’s first win ensured that no side were anywhere close to booking their places in the best-of-three finals — making the next two round of games extremely important. Moreover, this result must have came as a morale booster for a bunch of players who have been running on empty for the last one year, having not been paid by their board.

While Lanka didn’t put a foot wrong on Friday, nothing went Ricky Ponting’s way. Standing in for an injured Michael Clarke, Ponting called the right side of the coin, only to choose the wrong option of batting first, with showers forecast for the afternoon. Under a blanket of complete darkness, with their tails up, Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara conceded almost nothing to Australia’s openers David Warner and Matthew Wade in their respective first overs.

Malinga was hit for his first boundary by Warner in his second, but replied with his wicket in the third as the mishit flew straight to the man who was making his international comeback in this fixture, Farveez Maharoof. And what a comeback it would soon turn out to be. Introduced in the seventh over of the innings, the all-rounder started by setting Wade up by angling deliveries gently away from him, before bringing a few back to keep the opener a cautious man. While Wade survived two of his overs, Ponting didn’t last one.

With a back-of-the-arm slower ball that Ponting didn’t pick, Maharoof got the batsman to play early into the shot while giving himself adequate time to line up for the return catch. It was the 10th over of the game and Australia were in a spot of bother at 37/2. Maharoof would take his next wicket exactly 10 overs later, but by that time, the Australian innings would already be shredded.

Key dismissal

Before Maharoof dismissed Peter Forrest at second slip to make it 74/5, the fielder there, Angelo Mathews caused the dismissal of perhaps the most important wicket of the innings, a couple of overs earlier. Mathews had been smashed into the Members Stand for a humongous six by Michael Hussey in the fifth ball of the 18th. But the bowler held his nerve and hit the same length once again, and was rewarded with an edge to the keeper.

The top-five had all been dismissed for less than 20 each, and Lanka were holding all the trump cards when the rain came down and reduced the game to 41-overs a side. In fact, by the end of the innings, only one man would end up breaking the 20-run shackles — David Hussey. The two-hour long rain break ensured that Sri Lanka lost their razor edge on resumption, and the New Mr Cricket did what he had been doing all tri-series long, hit the ball full and long. His 58 took Australia to exactly a hundred more, but a rampaging Tillakaratne Dilshan more than nullified it, not long into the reply.