Close Sri Lanka 165 for 3 (40 overs: Atapattu 51, Sangakkara 48, Jayasuriya 42) beat Australia 162 (48.3 overs: Warne 39, Gilchrist 31, Muralitharan 3-26) by seven wickets
Scorecard

So they are mortal after all. On a slow, low wicket, and in front of a passionate, seething Colombo crowd, Australia crumbled to 162 all out and a humiliating seven-wicket defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka, and flopped out of the Champions Trophy at the penultimate hurdle. Sri Lanka, the rank outsiders to all but a nationful of optimistic islanders, will now meet India in Sunday's final at the Premadasa stadium. It is a match that will have the tournament sponsors drooling – appropriate really, given the hassle they caused before a ball had even been bowled.

Australia's form in the run-up to this clash had been so hyped that they fell victim to their own publicity. After thumping Bangladesh by nine wickets in their final group match, the team's preparation for this encounter consisted of a week's sunbathing in the Maldives. They were certainly relaxed on their return – though judging by their batting, they appeared to have picked up one or two bad habits from the turtles as well.

As predicted beforehand, the match was won and lost inside the first fifteen overs of the match. What nobody foresaw, however, was that Australia would be the side to implode. Although they started in a typically bombastic fashion, galloping to 48 without loss after six overs, the innings was turned on its head when Sanath Jayasuriya abandoned his wayward seamers and threw the ball to Aravinda de Silva.

Australia displayed a naïve obsession with the cross-batted swing, and lost four big wickets in the next seven overs, for the addition of a miserly nine runs. Without bothering with a sighter, Hayden danced arrogantly down the track and was bowled for 13 with his head facing looking up at the floodlights (49 for 1). In the next over, Gilchrist (31) aimed something equally ambitious at Kumara Dharmasena and skewed the ball to Marvan Atapattu in the covers (49 for 2).

Vaas returned to the attack to probe two new batsmen, and Ricky Ponting was adjudged lbw via the third umpire for a tortuous 3 from 22 balls (56 for 3), before Damien Martyn goosed the less-than-fleetfooted Darren Lehmann (0), by turning down a quick single to backward square-leg (57 for 4). By the end of the 17th over, Australia had reached 64 for 4, and only then did a certain Mr Muralitharan enter the fray.

The rest of the innings was a poor imitation of an Australian salvage job. Martyn ran himself out for 28, Michael Bevan swept Dharmasena to Russel Arnold at midwicket for 12, and only Shane Warne applied himself properly, top-scoring with a determined 39. When Glenn McGrath made a rare appearance at the crease – he has scored 88 runs in 163 internationals – Australia knew they were in trouble. He was duly bamboozled and bowled first ball, as Murali picked up his third wicket of the innings.

Australia – and McGrath and Jason Gillespie in particular – needed to strike hard and fast if they wanted to keep their hopes alive. Ponting packed the offside field accordingly, but with Jayasuriya thrashing at the slightest hint of width, irrespective of the risks, and Atapattu stodgily refusing to budge, the breakthrough never came. Some clinical running between the wickets disrupted Australia's line, and they had added 67 in the first 15 overs when Warne produced a beauty that went straight on to bowl Jayasuriya for 42.

Atapattu dropped anchor for a 109-ball half-century – the perfect innings in the circumstances – as Kumar Sangakkara took on the role of aggressor. Though both fell with victory in sight, de Silva and Mahela Jayawardene were never in a position to stage a repeat of South Africa's capitulation on Wednesday. An all-Asian final awaits, while for the invincible Aussies, there are one or two questions to be pondered.

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