The Sri Lankans celebrate as Ruchira Perera ousts Simon Katich

"It shows the character in the team," he said. "There are lots of experienced guys but we had to pull our socks up.

"We had a decent chat after that first game, to find out exactly what we had been through and we worked really hard.

"The seniors had moved down the order but having Sanath (Jayasuriya) back makes the batting much more balanced."

Match report

Man-of-the-match Jayasuriya was delighted to mark his return to the team with a pivotal 114, which led to their second successive victory following the 94-run win against South Africa.

Jayasuriya arrived in Australia on Friday, had a net on Saturday and made a century on Sunday, his third at the SCG.

"I wanted to play for my country whenever I was fit and this is a nice place to be," he said.

"I was out for two weeks because of my shoulder but I played some domestic cricket and practised with our A team."

Australia captain Ricky Ponting admitted Jayasuriya's stunning century was too good for his team as they succumbed to their second defeat of the VB Series.

"He played very well on a really good wicket," Ponting said. "He played his shots and it came off; it seemed like every ball he hit missed the fielders.

"They had great start, we pulled it back a bit towards the end but it was always difficult chasing 310.

"Their batsmen did a great job and then they out-thought us with the ball, bowling lots of slower balls gripping across the seam and getting the ball to hold up a lot more than we did."

Counterpart Marvan Atapattu observed that the toss was crucial, having lost 10 out of his 12 previously, but Ponting refused to blame batting under lights for his team's poor showing.

"The wicket did slow up a bit but you'd expect that," he said.