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Australia beats Sri Lanka to win ODI series

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Aug 20: Xavier Doherty and Brett Lee shared eight wickets as Australia beat Sri Lanka by five wickets in the fourth one-day international to secure an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.



Batting first, Sri Lanka was bundled out for 132 in the 39th over and Australia reached 133-5 with 22 overs to spare at R.Premadasa Stadium. Shaun Marsh top-scored for Australia with 70. [break]



Doherty picked up the important wickets of Kumar Sangakkara (31), Chamara Silva (0) and Anjelo Mathews (7) and also tailender Seekkuge Prasanna to finish with 4-28, surpassing his previous best figures 4-46. He was named the man-of-the-match.



Lee took 4-15 to help dismiss Sri Lanka with more than 11 overs to spare.



Australian captain Michael Clarke credited his bowlers for the win.



"It´s another great performance. I thought our bowlers did everything perfect, we didn´t get wickets at the start (but) we bowled with very good discipline and hit good areas," Clarke said. "I thought our patience was the key with the ball today."



Australia lost two early wickets in their chase with opener Shane Watson (12) and Ricky Ponting (0) dismissed in the seventh over of the innings bowled by seamer Lasith Malinga. Both wickets were lost with the total on 26.



Watson mistimed a drive straight to Ajantha Mendis at mid-on, while Prasanna took a diving catch to dismiss Ponting.



Marsh and captain Clarke steadied the innings, sharing 97 runs for the third wicket in 116 balls.



Debutant leg spinner Prasanna dismissed Marsh caught by wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara in the 27th over and went on to capture two more wickets in the same over — Mike Hussey (0) caught behind and David Hussey (0) bowled. But his effort came too late defending a low total.



Clarke remained 38 not out.



Prasanna finished his first international match with best bowling figures 3-32. Malinga returned 2-18.



Earlier in the afternoon, Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan won the toss and elected to bat but he and opening partner Upul Tharanga struggled as tight bowling from Australia´s seam bowlers kept them under four runs an over.



Doug Bollinger provided Australia with its first breakthrough, having Dilshan caught by wicketkeeper Brad Haddin for 12 with the total on 20. Tharanga departed in the next over, bowled by Lee to leave the hosts on 24-2.



Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene combined for a patient 71 runs off 114 balls before Sangakkara was caught by Lee at long-on for Doherty´s first dismissal.



Two balls later, Doherty trapped Silva lbw without scoring and Mathews was stumped after trying to hit Doherty.



It was all downhill for the hosts after Sangakkara´s dismissal, losing 8-37 in 80 deliveries.



Jayawardene hit four boundaries and faced 102 balls for 53 before being caught and bowled by Lee.



Sri Lanka´s batting coach, Marvan Atapattu, blamed poor batting for the defeat.



"It´s pretty disappointing, no doubt about it," he said. "It´s more to do with the application than anything else. We know the potential that we have, but we have not gone all the way to show what we are made of."



"After all, we haven´t batted the full quota of 50 overs other than on one occasion. We haven´t used our quota, which is a must in one-day internationals," Atapattu said.



The final match of the series will be played at the same venue on Monday.



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