Australia:India were finally knocked out of the tri-series as Sri Lanka brought a heart-breaking end to their nervous wait with a nail-biting nine-run victory over Australia in the last over of a must-win contest here today.
India needed an Australian win to qualify for the finals but it was Sri Lanka who secured a passage to the summit showdown as they scraped past the hosts in a match which saw fortunes fluctuating from one team to another till the very end at the MCG.
Electing to bat, Sri Lanka put up a modest 238 runs and then bowled out the hosts for 229 to win with five balls to spare.
In then nerve-wrecking final moments of the game, Australia needed 10 runs in the last over off Nuwan Kulasekara but David Hussey's mighty heave was caught by Tillakaratne Dilshan at long-off to trigger off wild celebrations in the Sri Lankan camp.
Both Australia and Sri Lanka now have 19 points each and will clash in the best of three finals, beginning at Brisbane on Sunday.
Michael Hussey has proven a handy partnership breaker with his slow-medium bowling recently and this time he was on the end of a similar ploy, as Thirimanne drew an edge behind that was well taken by Sangakkara. It was Thirimanne's first international wicket and his second in all List A cricket, and importantly for Sri Lanka it was followed a few overs later by the departure of Watson.
The Australian chase was guided well by stand-in skipper Shane Watson, who scored 65 runs, and David Hussey's fighting 74, but they lacked the fire power in the end to overhaul the modest target.
For Sri Lanka Kumar Sangakkara (64), Dinesh Chandimal (75) and Lahiru Thirimanne (51) were the chief
contributors to the total.
India remained on 15 points and it marked the end of the a disastrous tour, in which they suffered a 4-0 Test series whitewash and had mixed results in the tri-series.
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