At Melbourne, January 18 (day/night). Australia won by 18 runs. Toss: Sri Lanka.

A double breakthrough inside five overs by the rapidly improving Vaas helped restrict Australia to 201 in front of the largest crowd of the summer. Sri Lanka felt Steve Waugh was lucky to survive an lbw appeal and were positively peeved when the same umpire, Randell, gave Kaluwitharana out just as he was warming up, with three fours in nine balls. Even so, they ought to have won after reaching 107 for two in the 24th over. But Warne produced two wickets in that over and McDermott chimed in with a spell of three for 14, including one with an experimental delivery in which the ball slewed off his knuckles. During the game McDermott joined Wasim Akram and Kapil Dev as the only bowlers to take 200 wickets in one-day internationals. Mahanama resumed with a runner after tearing a hamstring and Ranatunga forged on despite an injured hand, but pluck alone could not repair the earlier damage.

Attendance: 72,614.

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