HOBART - Australia have overcome the loss of captain Michael Clarke and averted disaster by squaring the one-day series against Sri Lanka at 2-2 with a tough 32-run victory at Bellerive.
An unbeaten century from Phil Hughes and three wickets apiece from Xavier Doherty and Moises Henriques have helped the home side to a fighting win after they were down 2-1 in the series.
Without their skipper and best player due to an ankle injury and less than a week after being bowled out for 74, a disastrous 3-1 loss on home soil beckoned.
But Hughes cracked 138 from 154 balls, his highest ODI score, to anchor Australia's 5-247 and set up a daunting run chase for Sri Lanka.
Doherty (3-21) then removed three of the tourists' top four and Henriques (3-32) made crucial breakthroughs to drag Australia off the canvas.
The Lankans had cruised to 0-57 before losing 4-20 to all but crash out of the decider.
They were 1-57 when Mahela Jayawardene, in his last match as captain, was caught for 38 from 39 balls attempting to chip Doherty over the infield.
Doherty struck again in his next over when he had Lahiru Thirimanne (1 from 10) caught in the deep at 2-62.