David Warner has sent a message to his critics by leading Australia to a dominant seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka in their Twenty20 World Cup clash.
After Adam Zampa's 2-12 kept Sri Lanka to 6-154, Warner's 42-ball 65 helped Australia cruise to victory with 18 balls to spare.
The win leaves Australia undefeated and second in their group, with two wins in remaining games against England, West Indies and Bangladesh likely to be enough to see them through to the semi-finals.
Just days after laughing off questions over his form and taking to concrete pitches to regain his rhythm, Warner did his talking with the bat in Dubai.
He went out hard as part of a 70-run opening stand with Aaron Finch, before taking complete control of the match in Australia's chase.
Busy throughout, Warner struck 10 boundaries and regularly peppered the rope square of the wicket before falling at wide long-off with the game already sealed.
It came after a patch of just three runs in four games leading up to the tournament, before 14 against South Africa showed some small promise.
But Sri Lanka still only had themselves to blame as they bowled poorly and wicketkeeper Kusal Perera missed a simple chance to remove Warner on 18.
In what could well finish as the worst drop of the tournament, Perera put down a sitter after Warner gloved a slower-ball bouncer from Dushmantha Chamerra.
It came during a brutal powerplay, as Australia put on 63, the best opening six overs of any team in the tournament.
Finch jumped on anything too full or too short, hitting five fours as well as a six down the ground and another behind backward point.
He also provided the shot of the night when he jumped down the wicket to a 148km/h Laiharu Kumara ball and creamed it back down the ground for four.
The captain finished with 37 from 23 in his own highest score in three months, before chopping on from Wanindu Hasaranga.
Hasranga also had Glenn Maxwell removed on the boundary two overs later, but it was only a brief hiccup as Steve Smith (28 off 26) and Marcus Stoinis (16 off 7) saw Australia home.
While Warner and Finch provided the theatrics, it was Zampa who engineered the result.
His 2-12 was the most economical return of his international Twenty20 career, while he turned the match with the wicket of Charith Asalanka for 35.
With Sri Lanka getting set to launch and wickets in hand, Zampa removed Asalanka on the square leg boundary when he tried to sweep a wrong'un.
In total he sent down 12 dots and was not hit for one boundary, with the pressure he built up evident in the wicket of Avishka Fernando two overs later.
Mitchell Starc was also crucial with his 2-27, removing Perera for 35 in the over after Asalanka's dismissal with a vintage in-swinging yorker after going the distance the previous ball.
But Sri Lanka did ask questions of Australia's option to go with only four specialist bowlers, taking Maxwell and Stoinis for a combined 51 runs in their four overs.
