Australia, Sri Lanka share points from washout in Colombo

Abandoned Australia vs Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka will probably be the happier team to get a point out of their washout against world champions Australia in Colombo on Saturday. The conditions didn't look as bad a day before the game and even on Saturday when the two teams had walked out before toss time to assess the ground. But the rain picked up quickly, and even though the entire ground was covered, the match had to be abandoned about two and a half hours after the scheduled start time.

The two teams came into this match with contrasting results in their opening games - Australia had beaten New Zealand by 89 runs in Indore and Sri Lanka had lost to India by 59 runs (via the DLS method) in Guwahati.

Australia continue to top the table with three points and Sri Lanka have jumped to fifth place, but with a negative net run rate of -1.255. Australia were the favourites for this game - like they are in the tournament - as Sri Lanka have never beaten them in international cricket across 11 ODIs and eight T20Is.

This also means Sri Lanka head into their next fixture - against England on October 11 - after what is now a gap of 10 days, having played India in the World Cup opener on September 30. Australia had flown into Colombo on Thursday from Indore and will continue to stay in Colombo to play Pakistan on October 8 before flying to Visakhapatnam to face India on October 9.

Colombo is also set to host the India vs Pakistan match on Sunday, and the weather forecast doesn't look too optimistic for that either.