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Australian captain Ricky Ponting smashed an unbeaten century to lead his side to a nine-wicket win over Sri Lanka in a triangular series one-day match on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka won the toss and batted, scoring 214 for eight before Australia reached 215 for one in 34.3 overs in reply.

Ponting hit 106 off 97 balls and put on a record stand of 178 for the second wicket with opener Matthew Hayden, who was 80 not out.

There was nothing at stake in the match, the last in the 12-game series, with Australia and England already through to the best-of-three finals, starting in Sydney on Thursday.

Earlier, Sri Lanka veteran Aravinda de Silva became the third player to reach 9,000 runs in one-day internationals.

The 37-year-old provided one of the few highlights of the Sri Lanka innings with the 27th run in his score of 44 from 73 balls.

Only Indian pair Sachin Tendulkar, with 11,546 runs from 303 games, and Mohammad Azharuddin, on 9,378 from 334, matches stand ahead of de Silva on the all-time list.

Sri Lanka's batting fell away after a promising start of 86 for one from 20 overs.

Opener Avishka Gunawardene made 45 and Kumar Sangakkara hit 43 before becoming two of left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg's three victims for 37 runs.

The partnership between Ponting and Hayden was a record for the second wicket by Australia against Sri Lanka, beating the 157 by Steve Smith and Wayne Phillips in 1984-85.

SUPERB PONTING

Ponting, 28, who hit 11 fours and one six, played superbly to all parts of the ground in scoring his 11th century in 155 one-day internationals and second hundred in the triangular series.

"I hit the first ball for four and everything felt back to normal again. I was pretty happy with the way I struck the ball," said Ponting, who was rested from Australia's game against England on Sunday in Adelaide.

Hayden hit only one four but also thumped four sixes in his 87-ball innings.

Sri Lanka had rested captain Sanath Jayasuriya and were led by opener Marvan Atapattu, who made 26. They had also chosen to rest leading wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan, who has a thigh strain.

Atapattu said of de Silva: "He has been a great asset to Sri Lankan cricket and he is the best batsman that Sri Lanka has ever produced, by far."

Atapattu said the team, which had less than two days of rest in Colombo between a South Africa tour and the Australia tour, would have a brief break in Sri Lanka ahead of next month's World Cup in southern Africa.

Atapattu said Sri Lanka had hoped to finish their Australia tour on a better note than a nine-wicket loss, their sixth defeat in eight matches in the series.

"Sanath was under a lot of stress at the beginning of the tour (with three consecutive losses). A strong man, he came back very, very hard and did extremely well in the past couple of matches (122, 106, 6, 99). He must have thought he needed a break before we get to South Africa," Atapattu added.

Australia finished the series on 38 points with seven wins from eight matches, ahead of England on 20 and Sri Lanka on 14.

Australia are yet to name a team for Thursday's first final although leg-spinner Shane Warne has recovered from a shoulder injury he suffered in December and is expected to be included after playing two one-day games for Victoria earlier this month.

However, Ponting believes Hogg's good form, with 10 wickets in four matches, has given the selectors a tough decision.

"The Sri Lankans and English haven't picked him yet, he has a good wrong 'un," Ponting told reporters.

"If you listen to him (Warne), he's ready to go, so it's a tough decision that has to be made by the selectors and medical staff."