Sri Lanka beat Australia by 78 runs

A brilliant 13th one-day international century from opener Upul Tharanga took Sri Lanka to a 78-run win over Australia in the third one-day international at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium on Tuesday.

Invited to bat first after Michael Clarke the Australian captain had won his first toss of the five-match series, Sri Lanka piled up a competitive total of 286 for nine wickets with Tharanga scoring 111 off 139 balls (12 fours).

Man-of-the-match Tharanga and captain Tillakaratne Dilshan (55) got Sri Lanka off to a flying start by posting an opening stand of 139 off 151 balls.

The momentum was continued by the middle-order batsmen although Australia managed to capture nine wickets for 66 runs.

Doug Bollinger led the Australian fightback with four for 42 supported by Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson who shared four wickets between them.

Australia was never allowed to settle down by a rampant Lasith Malinga who tore into their batting to capture five for 28 runs as they were dismissed for 208 in the 45th over.

Mike Hussey was Australia's top scorer with 63 off 77 balls (five fours).

The rest of the batting was consumed by Malinga and debutant Shaminda Eranga who picked up a wicket with his second ball in one-day internationals, bowling Brad Haddin for five and then dismissing Ricky Ponting for 22 with a cleverly disguised slow ball.

"The first 10 overs were crucial. We did well to see them off. All the batsmen who followed did well," said Sri Lanka captain Dilshan.

"We believed 260 was a good total to defend and we proved it. Eranga bowled really well and Malinga was good as usual."

Australian captain Clarke said his team had been outplayed.

"Sri Lanka played really well with bat and ball. We did well to restrict them after that start but they deserved to win," said Clarke.

"Dougie (Bollinger) did a good job with the ball, there were some plays and misses, but they outplayed us in the end. We have work to do and need to improve for the next game."

Australia lead the five-match series 2-1. The two remaining games will be played in Colombo.

Strauss gets back on track against India

England cricket captain Andrew Strauss warmed up for next week's first Test against India by scoring a quick-fire 78 as Somerset reached 2-329 against the tourists at Taunton on Friday.

Strauss is on loan to Somerset from Middlesex in the hope of rediscovering his form after a miserable run during England's recent Test series win over Sri Lanka.

The switch paid dividends as Strauss shared a 101-run partnership with Arul Suppiah before the opener was dismissed by Amit Mishra shortly before lunch on the opening day of the three-day match.

Strauss scored just 27 runs in three Tests against Sri Lanka and, with Middlesex's fixtures offering little chance for first-class action, he decided to take the risk of giving India's bowlers a chance to dent his morale ahead of the start of the first Test at Lord's.

He struck 11 boundaries and brought up his half century from just 63 balls, although he did survive an lbw appeal from Indian seamer Zaheer Khan when he had scored only 20.

Strauss escaped again on 64 when Wriddhiman Saha, the reserve wicketkeeper playing in place of the rested MS Dhoni, dropped an edge off Mishra.

However, Saha took the next chance when an edge bobbled off the pad, ending Strauss's innings on 78 from 98 balls.

India's bowlers found it hard going during 75 overs of action on a rain-interrupted day at Taunton and Somerset look on course to score a huge first innings total.

Suppiah was India's chief tormentor and finished the day on 145 not out after hitting 14 fours and one six.

Nick Compton also weighed in with 88 before India's Suresh Raina had him caught by Yuvraj Singh just before the close with the score on 324.

Zaheer is the only one of the India attack taking on Somerset who is certain to play at Lord's, with Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar rested following their workload in the recent Test series against the West Indies.

Although bowlers Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and Munaf Patel failed to stake a claim to start at Lord's, a strong Indian batting line-up featuring Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid will fancy their chances of responding with a big total of their own.

Cook wields hot bat again as England level series

LONDON,  - Captain Alastair Cook continued his impressive form with the bat as England cruised to a 10-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the fourth one-day international at Trent Bridge on Wednesday to level the five-match series at 2-2.

Cook hit an unbeaten 95, following on from his century in defeat at Lord's on Sunday, as England easily overhauled a revised target of 171 after a short rain delay.

Craig Kieswetter stroked a composed 72 with he and Cook rarely troubled on a Nottingham wicket that was well exploited by England's bowlers.

Sri Lanka were dismissed for just 174, struggling to post a respectable total after the fall of early wickets.

The tourists were grateful to former captain Kumar Sangakkara, who top-scored with 75 after his side had slumped to 20-4 with Jimmy Anderson bagging three wickets.

The only partnership of note came in a 72-run sixth-wicket stand between Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews (39) but ended when Mathews was dismissed by a fine diving one-handed catch from Tim Bresnan off his own bowling.

Paceman Jade Dernbach also took three wickets and under pressure team mate Stuart Broad finally took his first two scalps of the series.

The final match of the series is at Old Trafford, Manchester on Saturday.