David Warner has labelled Sri Lanka’s one-day international pitches as “disappointing” and opener Aaron Finch says they’re the worst he’s seen.

Australia claimed victory in the five-match series after going three-one up with a comfortable win in Dambulla on Wednesday night.

Skipper Warner taunted Sri Lanka by saying a late switch from a green-looking pitch to the same dry deck used for Sunday’s third game didn’t have the desired effect for the home side.

Australia played only one specialist spinner. Big quick John Hastings took a career-best 6-45 in Sri Lanka’s 212.

“Maybe they put a ‘bunsen burner’ (turning pitch) there for us to pick a (second) spinner,” Warner said.

“You guys probably like playing against spinners and not against the quicks.”

Warner’s men smashed 4-217 in reply, led by Finch’s half-century off 18 balls which equals the Australian record.

“It’s about getting a good start in these conditions and make use of that new ball when we’re batting, because otherwise you see what happens when the ball gets old,” Warner said.

“It starts turning square.”

Finch didn’t mince words when asked about the dusty pitches.

“The first wicket was a nice wicket and they’ve reeled out some ordinary one-day wickets since then,” Finch said.

“It can be quite frustrating as a batter when you look over and there’s a beautiful batting wicket two strips over that could have been a really entertaining game from a high-scoring point of view but they used the same one.

“It’s their home conditions so they’re entitled to do that. But it was nice to win when you feel there was a lot of things working against you.”

The veteran of 68 one-day internationals said the Dambulla deck “would have to be close” to the worst pitch he’d seen at this level.

“This has been as hard (for batting) as I’ve seen it,” Finch said.

Warner said winning the series felt “amazing” after the heartaches of a three-nil loss in the Test series and the dramas with spin-friendly pitches prepared by Sri Lanka.

The star opener has a top score of 19 in the series. Warner says it’s hard to gain momentum “when the wickets prepared are like this”.

“Sitting back and watching England score 444 (against Pakistan), then we come out here and busting our backsides and both teams scramble to 200,” Warner said.

It’s a little bit disappointing. It’s probably not ideal for people coming out here to watch that kind of cricket.”

Seven of eight totals in the series have been under 250.

Australia’s George Bailey hit an skilful and unbeaten 90 but his efforts were overshadowed by Finch’s brutal knock.

A calf strain is likely to rule Sri Lanka’s skipper Angelo Mathews out of Sunday’s fifth game at Pallekele Stadium, near Kandy.

Fans not only saw the home side lose, they were sprayed with tear gas as police tried to disperse hundreds of supporters who were trying to force their way in without tickets.

(Herald Sun)