Sri Lanka thrashed before the lights came on

ADELAIDE, Jan 7 AAP - The lights were hours from being turned on and those planning a night at the cricket after work were still at their desks when Australia A won its day-night match against Sri Lanka at Adelaide Oval today.

The match, more accurately a mismatch, was over by 4.46pm (CDT), just three hours and one minute after it started - including a 10-minute break between innings.

Australia's second-string side humiliated a self-destructing Sri Lanka by 10 wickets.

The tourists' inability to cope with a bouncy, but true, Adelaide pitch was exposed as they were skittled for 65 in just 25 overs.

Veteran Hashan Tillakaratne (11) was the only Sri Lankan batsman to reach double figures. The sundries total was 26.

All-rounder Ian Harvey took the stunning figures of 3-2 from four overs, after opening bowlers Brad Williams and Nathan Bracken took two wickets each to lead the destruction.

In reply, Australia A openers Greg Blewett and Jimmy Maher both made 28 not out and were untroubled as they pounded the bowlers to reach the victory target in 11.5 overs and in less than an hour. It was one of the most emphatic victories imaginable.

Only an Australian Cricket Board (ACB) decision to stage a second game gave the crowd - already more than 7,000-strong by 4pm (CDT) - and television viewers, a way to spend the night.

The 25-overs-a-side match meant those who paid to see cricket under lights had their wish fulfilled.

Sri Lanka's performance provided little hope it could improve on its winless record so far in the tri-series against Australia and England. Sri Lanka meets Australia at the SCG on Thursday.

It would also have been a disturbing indicator for Sri Lanka as it attempts to find form and adapt to what will be similar playing conditions in the World Cup in South Africa and Zimbabwe, starting next month.

Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya won the toss and chose to bat, but nothing else went right as the batting disaster started when Jayasuriya ran out opening partner Avishka Gunawardene for a duck in the third over.

Wickets tumbled from that point, many of them a result of batsmen being surprised by balls which bounced higher than they expected, with several catches coming from top edges or balls which struck high on the bat.

Australia A also fielded well, including two sharp catches from Harvey, one from his own bowling, and another at first slip off the bowling of captain Darren Lehmann to dismiss Sri Lankan No.11 Pulsathi Gunaratne and end the innings.

Remarkably, Sri Lanka's total could easily have been far lower, if not for some wayward bowling in the early overs by Williams and Bracken.

Several wides which went to the boundary caused Australia A to concede 26 sundries, by far the biggest contributor to the meagre total.