The ball still spun, and the sell-out crowds bayed for Sri Lanka, but Australia have comfortably won the limited-overs series playing "scrappy cricket", captain David Warner said.
Warner took Australia's reins when the ODI series was tied 1-1, but has won each of the five matches since then. His team has been particularly impressive in the T20s, winning the first by 86 runs, and the second by four wickets with 13 balls to spare, despite having lost six wickets for 27 runs.
"I think the guys showed a lot of determination and fight to overcome the conditions, which were very, very challenging and something that we are not very used to," Warner said. "The Test guys had to make an adjustment to make - from the Test match conditions to the one-day conditions.
"You saw scrappy cricket during the one-day series, where the highest score was 280 here. And then we were scrapping to get to 200. It was good grinding cricket. It was something that we're not used to. The encouraging signs mean that we've worked really hard to win both series. "
Though Australia have fared much better against spin in the limited-overs series, Warner suggested that didn't necessarily make them better players of spin in the Test format. He was, however, pleased with the seam attack, which prospered in conditions not known to favour quick bowlers.
"We knew once the shine got off the ball, the ball was going to spin consistently," Warner said. "In one-day cricket it's a bit different - you can't have two in close with slip and a leg slip. It's just not possible. The reverse sweeps, sitting in the crease to pinch the ones and twos, and rotating the strike, are all much easier in this game than in the Tests, where it was very, very tough for us as a batting team. But the way the bowlers conducted themselves and reduced totals after losing the toss consistently, was a fantastic effort."
Maxwell had also said good T20 scores in Asia didn't guarantee better Test performances, though he has now starred in consecutive matches as opener. He hit the best innings of the match again, scoring 66 off 29 balls to break the back of the target during the Powerplay. He remains a makeshift opener however, having replaced the injured Aaron Finch in this series.
"Maxwell is a very good player of spin inside the first six," Warner said. "He can chance his arm. He can reverse sweep and sweep. What he did today and the other day was no fluke. That's exactly what he can do when given the opportunity. We know with the team we have a structure there, and once Aaron Finch comes back in, he'll probably have to move down the order and assess what his game plan is again. We've seen him do it at the top, we've seen him doing it in the middle - there's no excuse."
Warner, who has been critical of bowler-friendly nature of the limited-overs pitches in Sri Lanka, said the Khettarama surface was the worst of the lot.
"The wicket probably wasn't up to scratch in the games. In the last game at Pallekele the wicket was outstanding - I know we played 260, but both teams felt like the wicket was very encouraging. We could hit over the top. There was nice, consistent bounce. Here it was very, very tough."