Australian cricket fans are breathing a sigh of relief, after defeating Sri Lanka on Monday night in the ICC One-Day International World Cup.

After coming off two heavy defeats against India and South Africa, the Aussies needed a response in threat of early elimination.

The visitors started poorly, with Sri Lankan opening pair Pathum Nissanka (61 runs) and Kusal Perera (78) building a 125-run opening partnership. Pat Cummins got Australia back into the game after dismissing both openers in short time.

Sri Lanka lost momentum from that point onwards, losing 9/52 to be all out for 209 runs after 44 overs.

Spinner Adam Zampa finished the innings with impressive figures of 4/47.

Rain initially halted the start of Australia’s run chase in Lucknow before the Aussies came out with strong intent. Despite scoring quickly, they looked in trouble when Steve Smith recorded his first duck at a World Cup.

The partnership of Mitch Marsh (52) and Marnus Labuschagne (40), helped steady the ship, leading the team in green and gold to a five-wicket win. Josh Inglis (58), Glenn Maxwell (31 not out) and Marcus Stoinis (20 not out) also had strong contributions in the side’s victory.

Post-match, Zampa said that this could be a turning point in their World Cup campaign.

“After the first two games it’s definitely a flat feeling in the chain rooms. I think you could probably go from one to 11 (playing team) and say we all could do our roles a little bit better, particularly those first two games,” he said.

“If we can kind of put it all together and play a good game [against Pakistan], you go two and two and the feeling’s much better.”

Australia will next play Pakistan on Friday in Bangalore, India.

Photo: mk_20150308_0035-14.jpg by Marko Kosonen available HERE and is used under a Creative Commons licence. This photo has not been modified.