Warner's sign of return to form take Aussies to a 7-wickets victory over Lankan Lions

David Warner showed signs of returning back to form as he scored 65 off 42 balls, guiding Australia to a convincing win against Sri Lanka at the T20 World Cup in Dubai on Thursday evening.

Chasing a challenging 155-run target, Warner along with skipper Aaron Finch got off to a brisk start as the pair added 70 runs for the first wicket. Finch was dismissed on 37 off 23 balls and soon after his dismissal Glenn Maxwell too returned to the pavilion.

However, a good partnership between Warner and Steve Smith set the tone for Australia's win before the Australian opener was dismissed on 65. Marcus Stoinis and Smith then completed the run-chase with three overs to spare.

Meanwhile, after being invited to bat first Sri Lanka managed to post 154/6 in 20 overs. The team started off strong, adding 53/1 in the powerplay.

However, some solid bowling by Australia, especially Adam Zampa in the middle overs helped them bounce back in the contest. Sri Lanka lost four wickets in the span of four overs, but a late blitz by Bhanuka Rajapaksa allowed Sri Lanka to post a respective total on the board.

With the bat Kusal Perera and Charith Asalanka scored 35 each, while Rajapaksa finished the innings unbeaten on 33 off 26 balls. Among the bowlers, Zampa, Mitchell Starc, and Pat Cummins combined to pick two wickets each.   

Australia captain Aaron Finch: "That was a really good performance. Sri Lanka got away to a flyer with the bat and the way that Adam Zampa in particular was able to drag that back through the middle, and then Mitchell Starc to have a real impact and bowl them two overs back-to-back through the middle phase where generally we would go with two at the death, he was fantastic. I felt like they were going at 15 an over through the Powerplay. I still felt it was a really good wicket so to chase that down was really nice. We knew we had to be a little bit calmer because when the ball was flying around it felt like they were going at 15 an over but when you looked up it was only 8 an over. So it's just a bit of a reminder to stick to our plans and don't start playing on emotion because that's not when Australia plays our best cricket. They're such a dangerous side and have guys who can take away the game quickly. We knew that spin was going to have such a big impact outside the Powerplay, Hasaranga and the offspinner Theekshana, so we knew their quicks we had to take a bit of a chance on and we got away with it but Davey played a beautiful knock. As a batter, I love batters getting [Player of the Match] but I think when you're looking at the impact on a game, Zamps was terrific tonight. On the back of a really good Powerplay from Sri Lanka, the way that he controlled the game, especially from that bottom end where the right-handers had a short boundary to hit to, he was fantastic. He got big wickets. That was a world-class performance from him. It's always a great battle [against England]. We're looking forward to it. They've probably been the form side in white-ball cricket for a long time. We love playing them and it'll be an entertaining game."

Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka: "We got the start that we really needed but in the middle phase we were not able to capitalize. We could have done a little well in the middle period, missing out really cost us. It's a bit of a concern. The other day, Asalanka took us home. The set batsman needs to take us home. I felt slightly we were 25-30 runs short on that wicket. We know how good those two batsmen are in world cricket. We have to bowl well and contain them in the Powerplay and we couldn't do that. In the coming games we should capitalize in the Powerplay with the ball. The Sharjah wicket, we've played two games there so we have some good plans and we should come well in the next game."