Pallekele: Opener Pathum Nissanka on Monday turned a tricky chase into a walk in the park, his belligerent 52-ball 100 powering Sri Lanka to an eight-wicket win over Australia and securing their place in the Super Eights here.
Set a record target of 182 at this venue, Sri Lanka rode on Nissanka’s unbeaten knock and Kusal Mendis’s 38-ball 51 to complete the task in 18 overs and leave Australia’s qualification hopes hanging by a thread.
Pavan Rathnayake remained not out on 28 off 15 balls.
Nissanka smashed 10 fours and five sixes during his match-winning knock.
Australia will now need to win by a massive margin against Oman in their final match and rely on both Sri Lanka and Ireland to beat Zimbabwe to have any sort of outside chance whatsoever.
In fact if Zimbabwe manage to beat Ireland on Thursday, then Australia will be knocked out even before meeting Oman in their last group league game.
Earlier, Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head blazed away to explosive fifties before Sri Lanka rallied to bowl out Australia for 181.