Adam Zampa, Michael Klinger star in Australia's 41-run T20 victory over Sri Lanka
Adelaide: Recalled leg-spinner Adam Zampa grabbed 3-25 and veteran Michael Klinger scored a half century as Australia won the third and final Twenty20 international against Sri Lanka by 41 runs on Wednesday.
The 36-year-old Klinger made 62 off off 43 balls and captain Aaron Finch, dropped on zero, scored 53 as Australia racked up 187-6 after Sri Lankan captain Upul Tharanga won his third successive toss and opted to field.
Sri Lanka couldn't capitalise on opening batsman Dilshan Munaweera's quickfire 37 and was bowled out for 146 in 18 overs with Zampa and James Faulkner (3-20) getting wickets regularly.
Zampa, who replaced Andrew Tye for the dead rubber, had in form Asela Gunaratne (4) lbw and then accounted for the wickets of Chamara Kapugedera and Dasun Shanaka in one over.
But Tharanga was happy that Sri Lanka won the series which featured Gunaratne's two powerful half centuries in the previous games.
"Beating Australia in home conditions is a tough thing to do," he said. "The guys did a good job. Asela played very well even in the South Africa series. The innings he played in the second game was amazing."
Munaweera made full use of the batting powerplay as Sri Lanka accumulated 60 runs off the first six overs for the loss of Tharanga's wicket.
But Zampa swiftly shifted the momentum back in Australia's favor with three quick wickets and Sri Lanka couldn't recover after slipping to 91-6 by the 12th over.
Earlier, Munaweera missed Finch's sitter at mid-wicket in Lasith Malinga's first over before the Australian captain raised a half century off 30 balls in home team's brisk start of 79 off 67 balls.
"I thought we played some fantastic cricket tonight," Finch said.
"A complete performance like this makes the last match even more heart-breaking ... we have been guilty of not converting starts. Today we had two fifties and Dunk and Head chipping in."
Travis Head (30) and Ben Dunk (28) also scored some useful runs and Klinger, who hit six fours and a six before getting run out in the penultimate over.
