Cameron White rescued the Australians by scoring a brilliant 49-ball 85 not out after the Aussies were tottering at 67 for 5. The Sri Lankan batting line-up was then found wanting against the extreme pace and sustained pressure of the Australian bowling line-up as the islanders folded up for a mere 87. Dirk Nannes and Mitchell Johnson were the chief destroyers picking up 2 and 3 wickets respectively but the man who won the game for Australia was Cameron White.

White smashed six fours and six sixes and shared a match-winning partnership of 101 off just 9 overs with Michael Hussey. Hussey compiled an unbeaten 39 off 26 balls with four fours and a six.

Suraj Randiv claimed 3-20 with his off-spin while medium-pacer Angelo Mathews picked up 2-24.

Sri Lanka’s run chase never really got going once the in-form Jayawardene was dismissed early and they were eventually bowled out for 87 off 16.2 overs.

Dirk Nannes (2-19) inflicted the early damage, removing experienced openers Mahela Jayawardene and Sanath Jayasuriya. Fellow left-arm paceman Mitchell Johnson claimed 3-15 while leg-spinner Steve Smith collected 2-12.

The victory was Australia’s second in a row in the Super Eight stage and it makes them the first team from Group F to reach the semi-finals.

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, will now have to beat India on Tuesday and pray that Australia beat West Indies if they have to make the last-four.

Match Summary:

Australia 168 for 5 (White 85*, Randiv 3-20) beat Sri Lanka 87 (Johnson 3-15, Nannes 2-19)

Man of the Match: Cameron White

Zimbabwe had earlier also defeated Australia in the 2007 World Cup in South Africa and this win will provide Prosper Utseya’s team the much needed boost, going into the tournament.

Elton Chigumbura helped his side to a competitive 173 for 7 scoring a blitzy 76 off just 33 balls. He hit five fours and six sixes and shared a 114-run partnership with Craig Ervine (39) for the fifth wicket.

For Australia, Mitchell Johnson was the pick of the bowlers, taking four for 23. Dirk Nannes took one for two, while Brett Lee returned with figures of one for 13.

Chasing 174, Australia were on course for a comfortable win with David Warner smashing a brilliant 72 off 49 balls, and skipper Michael Clarke scoring 49 to take them closer to victory. But three late run-outs saw them finish at 172 for seven, just one agonising run short of the Zimbabwe total.

“Obviously, we would have liked to have won,” Johnson said after the match. “When you come into these practice games, you want to be pretty close to your best. It won’t be a setback. It’s disappointing to lose in a practice match but we’ve just got to keep going forward.”

Australia plays its second and final warm-up match against local side Windward XI and this loss against Zimbabwe will serve as a wake-up call for the Aussies before their opening Group A match against world champions Pakistan on Sunday.

Match Summary:

Zimbabwe 173 for 7 (Chigumbura 76, Johnson 4-23) beat Australia 172 for 7 (Clarke 49) by 1 run

Sehwag has remained at the top with 863 points, followed by South African batsman Hashim Amla at the second spot with 842 points and Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardena at third spot with 836 points.

Australian vice-captain Michael Clarke, who made a remarkable comeback to the Australian test side scoring a century in his very first innings and had Sehwag firmly within his sights before the start of the second and final Test against New Zealand in Hamilton, as just 16 ratings points separated the two batsmen, has dropped to fifth position after his contributions of 28 and 63.

Clarke’s drop has helped Amla shift to the second place with an opportunity to snatch the number-one position from Sehwag when he faces West Indies in the three-Test series, which starts in Kingston on June 10.

In test bowler’s rankings, Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson has bounced back strongly after a disappointing first Test in Wellington to climb three places and regain second position, which he had first achieved last year in March against South Africa. The left-arm fast bowler, who took 10 wickets in Hamilton, had dropped two places to fifth position after managing just one wicket in the first Test.

Johnson’s left-arm opening bowling partner, Doug Bollinger, also continued his surge upwards has achieved a career-best 15th position after climbing four places following his figures of 3-57 and 2-87 in the second test against New Zealand.

Reid, also a former ICC match referee, was clearly hinting at Australian paceman Mitchell Johnson, who head-butted Scott Styris in a show of aggression during the first one-dayer in Napier.

“Generally the Australian team looks good, but there are a handful of idiots who need to be reined in,” Reid was quoted as saying in The Age. “Do your work with the bat and the ball, not your mouth.”

While some praised Johnson for sparking life into the series, Reid said the aggression displayed by the pacer was “not required”. Australia is playing a five-match ODI series with the Black Caps. The Series is leveled at 1-1.

Reid said players need to understand the importance of playing the game in good spirit. “Like it or not, these guys are role models for youngsters. Johnson was the aggressor, but he’s mad head-butting someone with a helmet on,” said Reid.

Reid claimed that in his time refereeing, Australian players were “always the worst at sledging”. “I dealt with barging by Glenn McGrath, bowlers standing in the way of a runner – like Johnson did to Styris – and Curtly Ambrose knocking the stumps out of the ground,” he said.

ICC match referee Ranjan Madugalle slapped Johnson and Styris with fines rather than suspensions for their showdown in the series opener at Napier but Reid felt the punishment could have been stricter. “I think he (Madugalle) did a reasonable job but, if anything, he could have come down a bit tougher,” Reid said.

After dominating the match for the first three days, the tourists just completely lost the plot on the fourth day as Nathan Hauritz picked up his second five wicket haul in as many matches. Hauritz finished with figures of 5 for 53.

Earlier, resuming on Day 4, Michael Hussey hit a brilliant 134 not out to set up the win for the Aussies. He and Peter Siddle shared a ninth wicket stand of 123 runs to take Australia to 381 in their second innings, a target of 176 for Pakistan. Danish Kaneria, with five for 151, was the most successful bowler for Pakistan in the second innings.

But as it turned out, it was the ninth wicket partnership that proved to be the deciding factor in the game. With this win, Australia became only the sixth team in test match history to win a game after trailing by 200-plus runs in the first innings.

Chasing 176, the visitors got off to a decent start, with openers Imran Farhat and Salman Butt notching up 34 runs from the first seven overs. But Doug Bollinger then struck for the hosts, removing Farhat, and Mitchell Johnson picked up two in quick succession to push the Pakistanis on the backfoot.

From 34 for one, the tourists slumped to 51 for three and were then tottering at 77 for five. Umar Akmal was the lone Pakistan player who showed some stomach to fight hitting 49 runs. He was the eighth wicket to fall and the hosts just took 19 more deliveries to wrap up the match.

Match Summary:

Australia 127 and 381 (Hussey 134*, Kaneria 5-151) beat Pakistan 333 and 139 (Umar Akmal 49, Hauritz 5-53, Johnson 3-27) by 36 runs

Man of the Match: Michael Hussey

Australia did make a strong comeback after the second new ball was taken as Pakistan lost 5-54 with Doug Bollinger (3-70), Mitchell Johnson (2-64) and Shane Watson (2-40) doing the damage in the final session of play. Danish Kaneria (2 not out) and Mohammad Asif (zero) were at the crease at the draw of stumps.

Earlier, openers Imran Farhat (53) and Salman Butt (71) shared a valuable 109 runs first wicket partnership for the visitors before Nathan Hauritz accounted for Farhat. Johnson then removed Butt caught behind for 71. Peter Siddle got into the action getting the wicket of Faisal Iqbal (27). The biggest jolt for the tourists came when skipper Mohammad Yousuf (46) edged a rising delivery from Johnson straight to wicket-keeper Haddin.

Bollinger then took three wickets in three successive overs with the second new ball to quash Pakistan’s hopes of scoring a huge first innings total.

Match Summary:

Pakistan 9 for 331 (Butt 71, Farhat 53, Bollinger 3-70) lead Australia 127 by 204 runs

The 30-year-old took a match haul of nine wickets, including a five-wicket haul in the second innings and, that pushed him up by eight places, moving ahead of spin rivals Harbhajan Singh and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Swann has also been consistent with the bat. He scored 85 in the first innings of the Centurion Test which has taken him to fourth position behind Australia’s Mitchell Johnson in the all-rounder’s list.

Among other Englishmen, Stuart Broad gained six places to reach the seventh position in the bowling rankings.

Meanwhile, South African bowlers have had a rough time in the first couple of test matches against England and that showed in the ranking, with veteran pacer Makhaya Ntini slipping four places to eighth position after failing to take a wicket in the match while left-arm slow bowler Paul Harris dropped five places, out of the top 10, to 12th spot.

Dale Steyn has managed to hang on to the number-one spot although he is now under significant pressure from Johnson, who is in top form in his side’s current series against Pakistan.

In the batting department, England captain Andrew Strauss moved four places to get into the top 15. He ends the year at joint-13th position.

The batting rankings are still headed by Gautam Gambhir of India followed by the Sri Lanka pair of Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara.

With this win in the Boxing Day test, Australia has taken a 1-0 lead in the series. The win also makes Ricky Ponting Australia’s most successful test captain ever with 42 wins from 65 matches.

Chasing a record target of 422 to win, Pakistan started the final day at 170 for 3, needing another 252 runs to win, with 7 wickets in hand. But once Mitchell Johnson rocked the Pakistan middle order with two wickets in the first over of the day, the visitors just couldn’t recover after that.

Pakistan skipper Mohammad Yousuf hit a fighting 61 but clearly missed the support from the middle order. Nathan Hauritz finished with career best figures of 5-101 while Mitchell Johnson returned with figures of 3-46.

Shane Watson, who scored 93 and 120 not out and also picked up a wicket in the first innings, was named the Man of the Match.

Match Summary:

Australia 5 for 454 dec (Katich 98, Watson 93, Hussey 82, Ponting 57) and 8 for 225 dec (Watson 120*, Aamer 5-79) beat Pakistan 258 (Mishah 65*) and 251 (Yousuf 61, Hauritz 5-101) by 170 runs

Man of the Match: Shane Watson

The third test between Australia and West Indies was marred with some very ugly incidents, which left three Australian players fined and one West Indian banned for two ODIs.

All-rounder Shane Watson was fined 15 per cent of his match fee for his over-the-top celebration after he dismissed rival skipper Chris Gayle in the second innings on Saturday. Earlier, wicket-keeper batsman Brad Haddin and fast bowler Mitchell Johnson were also fined for their ugly altercation with West Indies spinner Sulieman Benn, who was banned for two one-day matches.

Before that, Australian fast bowler, Doug Bollinger, was fined in Adelaide for kicking the pitch during the second test match. The behaviour of the Australian players invited wide spread criticism and Ponting said that he will make sure that the same mistakes are not repeated again when they start their series against Pakistan.

“I know all the guys are a bit embarrassed probably and know they’ve overstepped the mark. It’s one of my responsibilities as the captain to make sure that guys aren’t overstepping the mark. This week when we get down to Melbourne as a group together it will happen in our first team meeting, we will go over some of the events of this week,” Ponting was quoted as saying by the Herald Sun.

However, Shane Watson, who was fined for his wild celebrations after he dismissed Chris Gayle, justified his actions, saying that he was provoked by Gayle, thus that send off.

“There was a bit of build up to it, so it’s always nice to get Chris Gayle out, he’s obviously one of the most devastating batsmen in the world at the moment.  He definitely let me know that he was keen for me to come on to bowl leading up to that, so it was very nice to get him out first ball,” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph. “That was the catalyst for me celebrating the way I did. I know there’s a line and I was extremely happy to get him out, I normally don’t celebrate to that extent when I get someone out.”

“But when he baits me, talking about wanting me to come on to bowl to be able to take me down, it’s always very nice to get the upper hand,” the all-rounder added.

Gayle, who was named the player of the match and series, also took a dig at Watson’s conduct, saying he was not surprised by that. “Shane is that sort of person. I didn’t expect anything better. That is typically Watson. He is a passionate person. He expresses himself and sometimes he may overdo it,” he said.

Virender Sehwag had stormed into the top five of the Test batsmen rankings after his exceptional double-century (293) against Sri Lanka in the third Test in Mumbai.

Sehwag’s Delhi teammate, Gautam Gambhir, still leads the chart while Sri Lankan duo of Mahela Jayawardene and captain Kumar Sangakkara are at second and third positions respectively.

South African Jacques Kallis also made it to the top-10 to become the highest-ranked Proteas batsman after replacing captain Graeme Smith.

In the ICC rankings for test bowlers, South African Dale Steyn retained his No.1 spot while Harbhajan Singh and his India teammate Zaheer Khan retained their sixth and 10th spots respectively. Australia’s Mitchell Johnson and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan are in second and third positions respectively.