Australia’s Champions Trophy title defence is hanging by a thread, with an explosive performance needed by their batsmen against Sri Lanka if they’re to stay alive in the tournament.
Sri Lanka finished at 8-253 from their 50 overs, and Australia must chase the target down in just 29.1 overs if they’re to leapfrog New Zealand on run-rate in Pool A and progress to the semi-finals.
Mahela Jayawardene held the Sri Lankans together brilliantly, with 84 not out from 81 balls.
Left-armer Mitchell Johnson was the best of the Australian bowlers, finishing with figures of 3-48 from his 10 overs.
Sri Lanka simply need a win to make the semi-finals and could finish top of the pool ahead of England if Australia crumble.
Australia will need to score at roughly 8.3 runs an over to pull off a famous victory after what has been a tumultuous week.
With Michael Clarke again ruled out, stand-in captain George Bailey won the toss and elected to field at The Oval, the idea being Australia now have a clear idea of exactly how quickly they need to score.
Opener Shane Watson will be the key man for Australia, the powerful allrounder having the potential to blow open an attack.
In an erratic first over of the innings, Australian quick Johnson was whipped for consecutive boundaries from his first two balls, before trapping Kusal Perera lbw with his third delivery.
Fellow paceman Clint McKay (1-51) chipped in three overs later, when he had dangerman Kumar Sangakkara out caught driving to Glenn Maxwell at point.
Tillakaratne Dilshan and Lahiru Thirimanne were able to stop the bleeding and put together a 72-run third wicket stand before Dilshan fell for 34 in the 23rd over.
Spinner Xavier Doherty (1-30) made the breakthrough, with Watson diving brilliantly to his right to take the catch at slip.
Johnson came back into the attack and sent Thirimanne (57) packing, but former skipper Jayawardene took over his familiar role of anchoring the Sri Lankan innings.
Run outs by Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh at the death helped Australia restrict the Sri Lankans from an even greater total.