Australia cruised to an 84-run victory over Sri Lanka in the opening game of the five-match one-day series on Friday.

Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting scored fifties and Andrew Symonds provided a final-over flurry as the world champions piled up a stadium record 262 for six in their 50 overs.

Sri Lanka, reduced to 24 for three, stayed in the game thanks to a 121-run stand for the fourth wicket between Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.

But the loss of both batsmen in the space of seven balls handed the initiative back to Australia and the hosts collapsed to 178 all out.

Wrist spinner Brad Hogg was adjudged man of the match for his career-best figures of five for 41 as the last five Sri Lanka wickets tumbled for 12 runs.

Australia's total was the highest ever at the low-scoring Dambulla stadium, surpassing the 203 for nine made by Pakistan last year.

Scoreboard

Australia
A.Gilchrist c Atapattu b Chandana 66
M.Hayden run out 40
R.Ponting c Dilshan b Jayasuriya 58
D.Martyn c and b Chandana 27
M.Bevan st Kaluwitharana b Muralitharan 21
A.Symonds not out 37
M.Clarke lbw Muralitharan 0
B.Hogg not out 2.

Extras: (lb-5 nb-1 w-5) 11

Total: (for six wickets, 50 overs) 262

Fall of wickets: 1-104, 2-114, 3-189, 4-207, 5-239, 6-239.

Did not bat: B.Lee, J.Gillespie, B.Williams

Bowling: Vaas 3-0-19-0, Kulasekera 3-0-18-0, Dharmasena 10-0-49-0, Dilshan 5-0-28-0, Muralitharan 10-2-30-2, Chandana 10-0-47-2, Jayasuriya 9-0-66-1.

Sri Lanka:
S.Jayasuriya run out 8
R.Kaluwitharana run out 2
M.Atapattu b Gillespie 1
K.Sangakkara c Gilchrist b Lee 58
M.Jayawardene b Symonds 61
T.Dilshan not out 18
U.Chandana lbw Hogg 9
C.Vaas c Hayden b Hogg 0
K.Dharmasena st Gilchrist b Hogg 0
N.Kulasekara b Hogg 1
M.Muralitharan c Lee b Hogg 0.

Extras: (b-1, lb-2, nb-4, w-13) 20

Total: (all out, 43.3 overs) 178

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-13, 3-24, 4-145, 5-147, 6-166, 7-170, 8-170, 9-178

Bowling: Gillespie 6-2-14-1, Lee 8-1-31-1, Williams 5-0-28-0, Hogg 9.3-1-41-5, Clarke 5-0-21-0, Symonds 10-0-40-1.

Result: Australia won by 84 runs

Second match: February 22, Dambulla

Third match: February 25, Colombo (d/n)

Fourth match: February 27, Colombo (d/n)

Fifth match: February 29, Colombo