'We were targeting more than 250' - Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lanka captain, has said a score in the range of 250 would have tested Australia on the Premadasa track, given that the hosts were playing three specialist spinners. Heavy rain, however, ensured the match was abandoned after 32.5 overs and the teams had to split the two points.

"The game was well poised," Sangakkara said. He was unbeaten on 73 and together with Thilan Samaraweera had laid a strong platform for a challenging score. "We were looking at 250 or even more and it would have been a good game. It was the second game on that track and we had three spinners and they would have been pretty useful on that kind of track."

Sri Lanka went in to this game with Muttiah Muralitharan, left-arm spinner Rangana Herath and Ajantha Mendis - it was the first time all three featured together in an ODI. The hosts opted to bat and Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, admitted chasing would have been tough on a such a track, conducive to spin.

"You could tell that it was going to be a lot different than the wicket that was played on the day before, because you could see that one right beside it," Ponting said.

"That one had a bit of grass on it, and the one we were going to use today was basically rolled mud. It spun quite a bit early in the game. What you associate with most one-day wickets is they generally don't do much in the first innings of the game and they might just spin a bit towards the latter half of the second innings of the game. It appeared that this one was going to be a difficult one to chase runs on."

Australia are placed third in Group A, but have a game in hand over second-placed Sri Lanka and face Kenya and Canada in two of their three remaining matches. Sri Lanka take on Zimbabwe in Pallekele next before heading to Mumbai to play New Zealand, though Sangakkara was surprised about not playing that game at home. "We were surprised when we learned that we will have to travel to Mumbai to play that game. I thought hosts play at home," he said. "Playing the New Zealand game is beyond our control. You can't change that now. That's gone now and we need to be up for the task."