T20 World Cup: Marcus Stoinis leads Australia to victory against Sri Lanka

The second-fastest half-century in the Men's T20 World Cup was hit by Marcus Stoinis as Australia bounced back from their opening defeat.

Australia was able to reach their target with 21 balls to spare.

The man hit 40 from 45 balls.

Australia went into the game at the bottom of the Super 12s with a lot of pressure on them.

They will play England in Australia on Friday in a crucial game.

On the same day, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan play each other.

Stoinis powers Australia home

Australia went into this match under a lot of pressure after their 89-run loss to New Zealand.

It would have been very difficult for them to qualify for the semi-finals if they had lost again.

The match was in danger of being decided in the 13th over, when Australia was 97-3 and just eight runs in front of Sri Lanka.

But a brutal display of power hitting hauled the hosts over the line, with his knock featuring four fours and sixsixes in just 22 minutes.

Australia's captain said it was a pretty special batting performance. It's one of the main things in T20 cricket, when you come out with that intent, it makes him hard to stop.

Despite not winning any of their previous five games, Finch decided to chase for the sixth game in a row.

Australia began with much more intent after being destroyed for 200 by New Zealand on Saturday.

In the 12th over, David Warner took a superb diving catch at long-off to remove Dhananjaya de Silva, who was trying to accelerate and leave Sri Lanka at 75-2.

A mix-up between Pathum Nissanka and Charith Asalanka resulted in Nissanka running out for four.

The rearguard effort from Asalanka and Karunaratne included 31 from the last two overs.

Australia failed to score a boundary in the powerplay for the first time in their T20 history as they stumbled to 33-1.

In the middle overs, Sri Sri's spinners' strength waned. Wanindu Hasaranga was subjected to some brutal treatment, ending with a figure of 0-54 from three overs.

Glenn and Mitchell were the main beneficiaries, with Glenn hitting 23 off 12 and Mitchell hitting 18 off 17

The captain said that they were five out of ten. In the middle overs, we didn't get going, so we would have missed around 15 or 20 runs.

The new ball was hard to use. It was in the last part of the game that Australia excelled.