Australia skipper Aaron Finch and David Warner put up their 19th 50-plus first-wicket stand to take the defending champion to a comfortable position against Sri Lanka at the Kennington Oval in London.
Sri Lanka off-spinner Dhananjaya de Silva took the wickets of David Warner and Usman Khawaja in quick succession to bring the 1996 World Champion back in the game.
Aaron Finch equalled his highest ODI score of 153, which also equals the highest score this World Cup by Jason Roy. Steven Smith scored a useful 73 and shared a partnership of 173 with Finch for the third wicket.
Isuru Udana went out with an injury earlier in the day. But he came back and contributed to Sri Lanka's cause with two wickets and two run-outs to halt Australia's progress in the last ten overs.
Glenn Maxwell scored a quick-fire 46 off 25 balls with five fours and one six to take Australia to 334 for seven in 50 overs.
Sri Lanka opener Kusal Perera was almost run-out in the ninth over. Kusal was part of a 100-run first wicket partnership with his captain Dimuth Karunaratne to give the Lankans the advantage in the tough chase.
Mitchell Starc broke 115-run opening partnership between Kusal Perera and Dimuth Karunaratne when he knocked off Kusal's middle stump with a beautiful full and straight delivery. Starc finished the game with four wickets, thereby becoming the leading wicket-taker of the tournament.
Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne scored a well-made 97, his highest score in ODIs, to lead the Sri Lankan resistance against the Australian pacers who were on target for most of the day.
But the resistance was short-lived as Kane Richardson got the wicket of Karunaratne and Sri Lanka lost eight wickets for 61 runs to slump from 186/2 to 247/10 in 45.5 overs. Kane took three wickets, Pat Cummins took two and Jason Behrendorff took one in the match as Australia completed a well-deserved win.
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