Sri Lanka all-rounder Asela Gunaratne steered his side to a thrilling two-wicket win over Australia in the second T20I in Geelong on Sunday.

Gunaratne won the match for Sri Lanka with a boundary off the last ball on Sunday. It was his unbeaten knock of 84 from 46 balls that brought the visitors back into the game after they were left reeling at 40/5 five overs into their chase of Australia’s 174-run target.

His knock included six boundaries and five sixes. A bulk of them came in the last 12 balls, as Gunaratne led a lone charge with 36 runs still required. He smashed three sixes and a four off Moises Henriques in the penultimate over, before keeping his nerve to get the remaining 14 off the last over. With two needed off the final delivery, he smashed his sixth boundary to seal victory.

Earlier, Moises Henriques (56*) had propelled Australia to a competitive total of 173. In reply, Sri Lanka got off to a disastrous start as their top-order collapsed. Gunaratne though held one end up and took them over the line.

Gunaratne had scored a half-century in the previous game as well, which incidentally was also stretched to the last ball of them game, with Sri Lanka emerging as winners. The visitors now have an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series with one game left.

Brief scores: Australia 173 (Moises Henriques 56*, Michael Klinger 43; Nuwan Kulasekara 4/31) lost to Sri Lanka 176/8 (Asela Gunaratne 84*; Andrew Tye 3/37) by two wickets.