Australia defeat Sri Lanka by nine wickets, seal T20I series

Australia sealed the T20I series against Sri Lanka after defeating the latter by nine wickets in the second T20I match here on Wednesday.

Chasing a decent target of 118 runs, Australia suffered a major blow as skipper Aaron Finch was dismissed on a duck. Opener David Warner was then joined by Steve Smith.

Both played brilliantly and kept smashing regular boundaries. Warner and Smith managed to score their respective half-centuries during the chase.

Warner played an unbeaten knock of 60 runs while Smith was playing on 53 runs when they successfully chased the target with 42 balls remaining.

Earlier, after opting to bat first, Sri Lanka had a bad start as they lost their first wicket in the second over of the innings.

Avishka Fernando and Danushka Gunathilaka then played cautiously and formed a 24-run partnership. Billy Stanlake, in the sixth over, bowled Gunathilaka (21).

Sri Lanka kept on losing wickets and were reduced to 77/6 after the completion of 12 overs.

The visitors failed utterly to form a good partnership and were all out in the 19th over on 117 runs.

The third T20I between both teams will be played on November 1.

Brief scores: Australia 118/1 (David Warner 60*, Steve Smith 53*, Lasith Malinga 1-23) defeat Sri Lanka 117 (Kusal Perera 27, Danushka Gunathilaka 21, Adam Zampa 2-20) by nine wickets.