As we are talking about the Sri Lanka cricket team and the Australian cricket team, their rivalry is worth remembering as both teams are very popular in this matter. The battle between Sri Lanka and Australia is of historical significance. However, Australia always dominates over Sri Lanka, also this rivalry started when Sri Lanka defeated Australia in the 1996 world cup. Both teams try to draw the attention of cricket fans worldwide with their amazing head-to-head performances in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. According to the test status of 1981, Australia was considered a formidable opponent for Sri Lanka. In many tournaments, Australia dominated Sri Lanka and in the first test between them, Australia won the match with their flexible moves. However, in the year 1991; it was the first time when Sri Lanka defeated Australia in the test cricket series. Also, Sri Lanka won the ODI World Cup of 1996 with their efforts and was able to defeat Australia in finals, which became an unrecognizable part of cricket history.
As we all know Australia is one of the most powerful cricket teams, but Sri Lanka also never fails to give them tough fights with their full determination and hard work and won the biggest test series in the year 2016 with a score of 3-0. Both cricket teams attract a lot of cricket fans by giving such thrilling game and encounters in the ODI format. In this article, we will be sharing all the details about the Sri Lanka national cricket team Vs Australian men’s cricket team timeline, head-to-head records, etc.
Sri Lanka National Cricket Team vs Australian Men’s Cricket Team Timeline – Key Events
Some of the important moments in the rivalry between the Sri Lanka national cricket team and the Australian men’s cricket team are given below:
>1975- 1982 – Early encounter (first world cup)
In this amazing first World Cup journey, we have always seen that Australia always plays a dominant role over the other cricket teams. Likewise, they did the same with Sri Lanka. Both nations played the World Cup against each other with utmost intensity and determination in 1975 in which Australia won very gracefully with the score of 328/5 in 60 overs. This game was played on the 11th of June 1975 in London in which Australia won by 52 runs which was a good score. Despite this loss, Sri Lanka kept up the competitive chase and they fought back with full energy and enthusiasm.
>1983 – 1992 Sri Lanka’s first win over Australia
In 1983, Sri Lanka came back and defeated Australia with a score of 282/4 in 60 overs. This match was played in Taunton. This victory of Sri Lanka helped them become popular among the cricket world as they represented themselves as a good performance in the first ODI. In 1985, Sri Lanka won their first ever ODI against Australia, defining their evolving strength in the shorter format. The Sri Lankan players’ performance in the Benson & Hedges World Cup held in 1992 was a memorable tournament for Sri Lanka as they competed against various strong teams.
>1995 – 1996 The rise of Sri Lanka
After winning the first ODI, Sri Lanka gained a lot of confidence and came back in full form to compete with other top cricket teams. However, again there was a faceoff between Sri Lanka and Australia in which Sri Lanka won with a score of 189/9 in 50 overs and set a remarkable victory in cricket history.
>1996- World Cup Final
This match happened in Lahore Pakistan in which again Sri Lanka proved their dominance and superiority over Australia by winning the first-ever World Cup with a total score of 241/7. This was considered the most significant victory of the Sri Lanka national cricket team over Australia.
>1999 (Intense rivalry and Australia’s dominance)
From this phase, the Australian dominance era started in which they proved themselves by giving an outstanding performance in every single match and ODI. In this World Cup Australia tried every single way to know about the Sri Lanka team and their tactics and they even succeeded in this. In the 1999 Cricket World Cup, Australia won by 7 overs with the score of 297/9 in 50 overs and the major credit behind the success of Australia was Mark Waugh 104 and Ricky Ponting 90.
>2003 – World Cup Semi-Finals
The World Cup series has made a huge impact on the rivalry between both nations. Australia again defeated Sri Lanka and defined their capability and power in cricket. Australia always appears to be more dominating in every format. Australia won with a score of 212/7 in 50 overs. This finale was held in Barbados in which Australia again showed their superior moves and got the game in the basket with 281/4 in 38 overs. It was a very huge victory for Australia and its huge credit goes to Adam Gilchrist who scored 149 off 104 balls. In this test series, Sri Lanka again won the first test series in 2016 against Australia by the score of 106 and 183. However, Sri Lanka won by 229 runs. The 2nd test series was held on July 8 – 12, 2022, in which Sri Lanka again proved themselves by winning the 2nd test series with 39 runs against Australia.
Sri Lanka vs Australia Head-to-Head Records
Here are the head to head record of Sri Lanka national cricket team vs Australian men’s cricket team timeline:which 8 matches were drawn.
| Particulars | Australia | Sri Lanka |
| Won matches | 22 | 5 |
| Lost matches | 5 | 22 |
| Drawn matches | 8 | 8 |
| Tied matches | 0 | 0 |
| Home won | 13 | 5 |
| Away won | 9 | 0 |
| Neutral won | 0 | 0 |
- ODI matches
Both countries had a faceoff in 106 ODI matches of which 64 were won by Australia. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka gained victory in 38 matches in which 4 matches were drawn.
| Particulars | Australia | Sri Lanka |
| Won matches | 64 | 38 |
| Lost matches | 38 | 64 |
| No result matches | 4 | 4 |
| Tied | 0 | 0 |
| Home won | 39 | 20 |
| Away won | 15 | 16 |
| Neutral won | 10 | 2 |
- T20 matches
Both the teams were engaged in rivalry for decades and they played a lot of T20 matches together. In T20 matches Australia and Sri Lanka played 26 matches in which Australia won 16 and Sri Lanka won 10 matches.
| Particulars | Australia | Sri Lanka |
| Won matches | 16 | 10 |
| Lost matches | 10 | 16 |
| No result matches | 0 | 0 |
| Tied matches | 0 | 0 |
| Home won matches | 9 | 3 |
| Away won matches | 4 | 6 |
| Neutral matches | 3 | 1 |
Conclusion
Sri Lanka and Australia are one of the most popular cricket teams worldwide which gained a lot of attention from the audience because of their incredible moves and skillful performances. Both teams never fail to entertain their fans and provide exciting clashes to the people. However, India always gets crazy about cricket and when both countries come together on the field the performance becomes top-notch.
FAQs for Sri Lanka vs AUS Men’s Cricket Team Timeline
1. When was the most recent 1st ODI held between Australia and Sri Lanka
The first ODI between Australia and Sri Lanka was held on the 12th of February at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
2. Which country has won most of the matches in ODIs?
As we have already mentioned above, Australia won more matches than Sri Lanka in ODIs.
3. In which final tournament did Sri Lanka win over Australia?
Sri Lanka won the 1996 ICC tournament against Australia.
4. When did Sri Lanka first win against Australia?
After losing in 1991, Sri Lanka came back with full power and enthusiasm and won the next ICC World Cup.
5. What are the core strategies of both teams?
Sri Lanka’s strategy is to always try to improve their popular spin attack and the Australian team always tries to improve their pace attack.
