in the 35th over from 113 balls, and finally being dismissed on the last ball of the innings for 163 from 157 balls. Support came from Michael Clarke (37 from 25 balls) and Michael Hussey (19* from 10 balls), to take the total to 6/321. In reply, Sri Lanka replied with a strong run rate, but Brett Lee took the wickets of the two openers to leave Sri Lanka at 2/66 after eight overs. The run rate slowed and wickets fell regularly, and when Farveez Maharoof was dismissed in the first ball of the 31st over, Sri Lanka were reduced to 6/144; Kumar Sangakkara (42) was the only batsman to have passed twenty runs, and Brett Lee (3/59) and part-time spinner David Hussey (4/43) had each taken three wickets. Two significant and fast-scoring lower order partnerships then brought Sri Lanka back into contention for the game: Upul Tharanga (60) and Nuwan Kulasekara (73 from 43 balls) added 104 runs from 69 deliveries for the seventh wicket, and Tharanga and Dhammika Prasad (31* from 21 balls) added 37 runs from 25 balls for the eighth wicket. Sri Lanka needed 23 runs from the final three overs with two wickets in hand, but accurate death bowling by Lee and Shane Watson saw both wickets fall for only seven runs, with four deliveries to spare. The final margin of victory was 15 runs, and Australia took a 1–0 lead in the finals series. Australia's innings match was interrupted twice by rain, and light rain fell for much of the game, but no overs were lost. 2nd final After choosing to bat, Australia were reduced to 2/56 in the 16th over, at a conservative run rate of 3.69. After that, Michael Clarke (117) and David Warner (100) batted together for more than thirty overs, adding 184 runs for the third wicket, and Warner scoring a century for the second consecutive match. From the strong platform of 2/232 after 43 overs, Australia failed to accelerate at the death, scoring only 39 runs from the last seven overs to set a total of 6/271; Lasith Malinga (3/40) took 3/13 from his last three overs of the innings. Sri Lanka dropped five catching opportunities in the field. It took Sri Lanka only six overs to reach 0/50 in reply – helped by a poor display of opening bowling by Australia, which conceded twelve extras and a catch