Cricket World Cup 2019: Aaron Finch fires Australia to top with 87-run victory over Sri Lanka

Scorecard - Australia win by 87 runs

Australia 334 (50 overs)

Finch 153, Smith 73, Maxwell 46; Udana 2-57, Dhananjaya 2-40

Sri Lanka 247 (45.5 overs)

Karunaratne 97, K Perera 52; Starc 4-55

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Report

Aaron Finch blasted a national World Cup record 153 to send Australia top of the World Cup standings with an 87-run victory over Sri Lanka at The Oval.

Finch equalled his career-best One Day International innings in a one-sided result, the skipper eclipsing Ricky Ponting's unbeaten 140 from the 2003 final as Australia's top World Cup innings.

Australia's big hitting sealed a fourth win in five matches, with former skipper Steve Smith notching 73 and Glenn Maxwell a quickfire 46 in a final tally of 334 for seven.

Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Perera raced to a 115-run opening stand, but once Australia broke that partnership, Sri Lanka never looked capable of producing the required record World Cup chase.

Sri Lanka wound up 247 all out, the size of the chase forcing a clutch of mistakes.

Australia's commanding victory offered a statement of intent for their World Cup intentions and a warning to their rivals, notably England.

The grudge match against the hosts and pre-tournament favourites is slated for Lord's on June 25, and both sides appear to be moving towards top form.

Finch's superlative captain's knock comfortably won the day for an Australia side whose bowling improved as their time in the field wore on.

David Warner looked out of touch and scrapping for form in a patchy 26 from 48 balls at the top of the innings, and Usman Khawaja failed with just 10.

But all that proved immaterial with Finch in sparkling form, ably supported by first Smith and then Maxwell.

Karunaratne and Perera blasted out of the blocks to the extent that just for a fleeting 10 overs Sri Lanka started to concoct ideas of pulling off this monster chase.

Starc had other ideas though, clean bowling Perera with a fine delivery, on which turned Sri Lanka's entire innings.

The seamer's eventual haul of four wickets for 55 runs belied a sticky start, underlining Australia's trademark tenacity to turn events in their favour, often through little more than sheer will.

Karunaratne succumbed three shy of a maiden ODI century to boot, as hope proved a typically cruel mistress.

If Perera's dismissal was down to Starc's poise, Karunaratne's revolved around a gallingly loose shot.

No one who followed either opener could generate anywhere near the same power, panache and pace of scoring.

And so Sri Lanka's innings, and the match, petered out to the inevitable Australia win.

Australia roll on to face Bangladesh at Trent Bridge on Thursday, buoyed hugely by this result and certainly Finch's front-foot leadership.

Sri Lanka limp towards a Headingley encounter with England, where without significantly beefed-up middle order batting they can expect similar treatment.

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Aaron Finch admitted "questioning every decision" in the depths of his batting slump at the turn of the year.

"I've probably just changed my mindset, to be honest," said Finch, on his return to form.

"I started to doubt my game towards the end of the Australian summer. I was questioning every decision I was making.

"Because you're looking for an answer and you don't know what it is. It was a really great learning curve for me at the summer.

"Overall what I learned was you can strip it back as much as you want but it doesn't change the basics of the game.

"I was looking for everything other than the most basic thing, just watch the ball and react to it.

"I've just gone back to basics and changed my mindset just to be positive.

"My technique's probably tightened up slightly, I've worked on a few things.

"Sometimes you change some things but don't get rewarded. So it's been nice to get a little bit of positive reinforcement from the game."

Australia's masterful victory tees up the defending champions for what ought to be safe passage to the semi-finals.

Skipper Finch insisted he has "minimal" influence on the team, preferring to keep a low-key leadership profile.

When told some of his peers say he keeps his captaincy simple, Finch joked in reply: "That makes me sound pretty boring, doesn't it?

"I don't tend to take on too much outside of the actual captain's duties.

"You do all the planning as a group, we've got some great leaders in our squad as well, which really helps out.

"Everyone acts, prepares and trains like a leader, so I would say my influence is minimal.

"It's about everyone buying into the culture. There's a lot of people doing a lot of good things behind the scenes.

"It's always nice to get a hundred, but to be completely honest it doesn't really bother me if I get 99 or 100, it doesn't make too much difference to me personally, as long as you get the team in position to win.

"But it was actually nice to kick on past 100 and get 150 and go a bit deeper."

Sri Lanka put themselves on a collision course with tournament bosses after refusing to speak to the media.

The Sri Lankans refused to open their dressing room door when called to attend the post-match press conference.

An International Cricket Council (ICC) fine should now be in the offing, on a day when Sri Lanka team bosses were also understood to have complained about the pitch at The Oval.