Symonds, 28, scored a calm unbeaten 45 to steer Australia to a comfortable five-wicket win, also bowling a useful nine-over spell to complete figures of one for 48.

Symonds, yet to be dismissed in the series, was recently included in the Test squad for the first time and Ponting hinted that his prowess against spinners could help clinch a place in the side for the first match in Galle starting on March 8.

"He is playing beautifully at the moment and it is exciting to think that he could be in the Test line-up," Ponting said.

"He plays the spinners well and if they bowl a bad ball he is going to hit it. To have someone like him around is really good for the team."

Ponting is also delighted with the way his batsmen have played Muttiah Muralitharan in the last two games, with the demon off-spinner failing to take a wicket and conceding 92 runs in 20 overs.

"I don't think he is bowling that badly I just think we are playing him pretty well," Ponting said. "Our approach to him has been spot on so far.

"Most of our batsmen are picking him and playing him pretty well and hopefully we can do that again on Friday."

Sri Lanka skipper Marvan Atapattu rued his team's poor start when they slumped to 54 for four after fast bowler Jason Gillespie took three wickets.

"It all went wrong at the start and we should have ended up with 30 or 40 more runs on a good batting track," Atapattu said.

"It was a great innings though by Mahela (Jayawardene) and the lower order batsmen to get us to 226 at the end.

"It was great start by (Chaminda) Vaasy to get us those two early wickets and at that moment we had a sniff but (Damien) Martyn and Ponting then batted superbly."

Ponting made 63 and Martyn 62 to set up the world champions' comfortable victory, which put them 2-1 up in the five-match series.