Australia insisted it had not been wrong to run out of a top-notch spinner after a six-port defeat against a record-breaking Sri Lankan in Colombo.
Australia looked at the box seat after Travis Head helped them score 291 out of six on a slow port, before the hosts barely had trouble completing their chase with nine balls left over.
Pathum Nissanka hit his first one-day international century with 137 in the chase, while Kusal Mendis hit 87 in a 170-race second place with Nissanka before retiring injured with cramps.
It helped Sri Lanka complete their biggest chase against Australia as they won 2-1 in a five-game series with consecutive wins against tourists for the first time in 20 years.
Beyond this bilateral series, however, there are still bigger issues surrounding Australia’s bowling structure ahead of next year’s World Cup in India. With Adam Zampa back home with paternity leave, Australia decided not to play with Mitchell Swepson.
In Australia it also didn’t help a dew surface at night after winning the draw and christening as the pitch accelerated and turned less at the second inning.
Matthew Kuhnemann (header for 61 out of 10 overs) and Glenn Maxwell remained as Australia’s top spinners, with Cameron Green (header for 31 out of 5 overs) preferred as the all-terrain bowler ahead of Swepson.
Where Sri Lanka were able to secure a big buy-in with their wrist spinner Jeffrey Vandersay and his three-point return by 49, Australia was forced to turn to Marnus Labuschagne (head by 49) for seven overs of broken legs.
“You can always look back on a lot of decisions and wonder which one was right,” said Australian captain Aaron Finch. “We still think it was the right combination for this port with the slowness it seemed. You saw that in the first half of the game it was very stopped and turned quite a bit. “.
Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis hits 87 against Australia Photo: Ishara S Kodikara / AFP / Getty Images
Swepson’s absence also calls into question whether Australia will persist with him on the test team as Nathan Lyon’s second spinner in converting the ports. Although in a different format, he has now only played one of the top three ODIs, with Tanveer Sangha really the only other red ball option in the form of the tour.
Pat Cummins also rested for Sunday’s game as Josh Hazlewood and Jhye Richardson bowled hard but struggled to increase pressure. After Maxwell (one for 44) hit the starting port of Niroshan Dickwella for 25, Hazlewood (one for 57) and Richardson (two for 39) caused the only other minor damage in the end. But by then, the game was gone thanks to Nissanka.
The right-hander was brilliant all the time, producing the shot of the innings when he advanced to Hazlewood and struck him in the middle of the harbor for six. He also swept Maxwell for another big six and finished with 11 more limits before killing Richardson with seven needed.
It came after Head had previously continued his good form with the bat, hitting an undefeated 70 of 65 balls just one week after a century for Australia A.
With Steve Smith out and a minor quad stump, Finch hit 62 and Alex Carey 49 as Australia had to fight and struggle to get a good total.