With only two points to show for India and Australia's 10 and nine respectively, Sri Lanka face an uphill task in securing a berth in the tri-series final later this month.

Beaten in their first two matches and involved in a tie with the Indians at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday, Mahela Jayawardene's men will look to turn the tables on the opposition come Friday, when they clash with the hosts at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

While a spot in the best-of-three final is still a long way off, captain Jayawardene insisted that his side remain in the hunt despite their lack of victories thus far.

"It's a crucial game for us, and every game is important," he said. "I can't predict how many wins we need to get into the finals. What's in our control is to try and win matches.

"If we can control certain situations better and make less mistakes, we'll get those wins under our belt. One, two, three good wins, and we can be on top of the table."

Sri Lanka's tri-series standing could have read considerably better had they beaten Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men earlier this week. Instead, the match finished in a deadlock after Dhoni clouted three runs off the final ball of the match to draw the scores level.

Kumar Sangakkara's dropped catch earlier in the game and Lasith Malinga's fumbles across the closing throes cost the Sri Lankans dearly, but Jayawardene insisted on an improved performance come Friday.

"We were not ruthless enough to finish games off, and that is a disappointment. We need to make sure, when we get into those situations, we finish games off and get that winning habit going. That's something we've spoken about and hopefully we can get that right soon," he added.

"Missed run-outs in last two overs, overall we didn't handle certain situations that well. At the end of the day I thought we came back strongly in a lot of departments to compete with India, so that was a positive, but we need to be ruthless to finish the game off."