Five-time champions Australia injected some life into their moribund World Cup campaign with a five-wicket victory against Sri Lanka Monday.
Beaten by India and South Africa in the first two matches, Australia showed some urgency with the ball and bundled out Sri Lanka for 209 inside 44 overs with Adam Zampa leading the rout on figure of 4/47.
At 157/1 near the halfway stage, Sri Lanka looked poised to reach the 300-mark before the wheels came off their innings and they had to settle for a below-par total.
After strong winds delayed the start of their chase, Australia made heavy weather of a small target before Josh Inglis made 58 and Glenn Maxwell (31) stayed put to see them home with nearly 15 overs to spare.
It was Australia's first victory in the tournament, while 1996 champions Sri Lanka remained winless after three matches.
Pathum Nissanka (61) and Kusal Perera (78) put on 125 runs for the first wicket before Australia hit back to end the innings in 43.3 overs at Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.
Skipper Pat Cummins took down the openers to trigger a collapse and Zampa joined forces to return figure of 4/47.
Sri Lanka elected to bat first and the right-left batting pair of Nissanka and Perera took on the opposition bowlers with regular boundaries - 20 between them.
Perera reached his fifty with a boundary off Marcus Stoinis amid applause from the dressing room and a few Sri Lankan fans at a largely empty 50,000-seater stadium.
Nissanka soon got his second successive half-century as Sri Lanka charged ahead.
Cummins got Nissanka through a good outfield catch by David Warner and then bowled Perera.
Zampa sent back skipper Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama on consecutive balls between overs to be on hat-trick avoided by Dhananjaya de Silva.
Rain interrupted play for about 25 minutes and the break only gave Australia more power to return with wickets as left-arm quick Mitchell Starc bowled De Silva.
Sri Lanka kept losing wickets and a direct throw by Cummins ran out Dunith Wellalage for two.
Zampa kept up his attack and got two more wickets including Chamika Karunaratne, who was only called up to replace injured captain Dasun Shanaka at the weekend.
Charith Asalanka made 25 before being bowled by Maxwell as the Sri Lankan innings ended.
Sri Lanka named two changes to their team, which has scored over 325 runs in each of their two losses.
14TH MATCH
Sri Lanka 209 in 43.3 overs (Perera 78, Zampa 4/47) lost to Australia 215/5 in 35.2 overs (Inglis 58, Madushanka 3/38) by 5 wickets
