Unfinished business firing Stars quicks

An inability to close out the Sri Lankan innings in Tuesday's second one-day international and a stern message from bowling coach Joe Dawes have the Southern Stars fired up for today's third clash in Colombo.

The tourists sent down an extraordinary 41 wides in the 78-run victory in Dambulla as the 50 extras for the innings sat only behind Chamari Polgampola's unbeaten knock of 68 to be the second top-score.

Dawes, a former Queensland quick, ensured he got his message across in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday's performance.

"I don't really want to repeat it," Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars speedster Megan Schutt said of Dawes' post-game diatribe.

"It's hard to get Joe angry. He was a bit annoyed and we were too, we know that wasn't our best performance.

"Coming off and having extras as the second top-scorer is never a good feeling, especially as a bowler."

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Polgampola's fighting half-century frustrated the visitors after Sri Lanka were once again left in all sorts of trouble at 6-63 after a superb opening spell by Holly Ferling and a career-best outing from leg-spinner Kristen Beams.

While falling well short of the target set by the Australians, the hosts managed to bat out the overs to leave Schutt and her fellow bowlers with a sense of unfinished business.

"I think not finishing them off when they're nine down is probably the most annoying thing in the world," Schutt said after Thursday's training session.

"Especially as a fast bowler when you think you can always get those tail-enders out.

"To their credit, they batted well towards the end of the 50 overs and started to be more attacking and I think that showed that's the way they probably should play throughout the whole match.

"Ten wickets is what you want as a bowler, so that's what we'll go out to do next game."

Following the shock defeat to the West Indies in the World T20 final in April, Schutt spent countless hours at the Bupa National Cricket Centre due to tendinitis in the knees.

The South Australian quick returned to international action in spectacular fashion during the series opener in Sri Lanka, dismantling the home side's top order along with Ferling to claim 2-5 from four overs.

Following the tour of the island nation, Schutt and the Australians will jump straight into WNCL commitments, followed by a home series against South Africa, the second season of the WBBL and then a T20 series against New Zealand in February.

The bumper schedule ahead of the World Cup starting in June next year means Schutt will be more wary than ever with regards to how her body is feeling from game to game.

"It's starting to get a little bit sore," the 23-year-old said of her knee issues. "It was a really strict period of time to try and get ready for this tour, so we knew it was going to be a push coming back in.

"I think I just have to be sensible with it. If it's getting sore, then probably have a bit of a break.

"Apart from that, I've got really good physio and really good people behind me so I've just got to keep an eye on it."

Fixtures

Third ODI*: R. Premadasa Stadium, 23 September at 2:20pm AEST

Fourth ODI*: R. Premadasa Stadium, 25 September at 2:20pm AEST

T20: SSC Ground, 27 September at 6:30pm AEST

*ICC Championship matches

You can follow regular updates from Australia's tour match, four ODIs and T20 in Sri Lanka at @SouthernStars on Twitter.