Former Tottenham and Ivory Coast midfielder Didier Zokora made his Indonesian Liga One debut and helped Semen Padang stay top of the table, while Michael Essien and Carlton Cole were peripheral figures as Persib Bandung moved into second.
Semen Padang remained at the summit with a 1-0 home win over Persipura, which maintains their unbeaten start to the season.
The 36-year-old signed for the West Sumatran club earlier in the week. Despite picking up a yellow card early in the second half, he earned praise from coach Nil Maizar.
"He wanted to play the full 90 minutes so I did my best to keep him on the pitch," Nil said.
"It should be understood, however, that he has only trained for three days and he still needs time to adapt. I would say that he is at about 70 percent."
Persib defeated Sriwijaya 2-0 on Saturday to collect their first three-point haul of the season. It relieved the pressure on coach Djadjang Nurdjaman after the team threw away a 2-0 lead in the final minutes at PS TNI seven days earlier.
Atep Rizal fired home from close range after a smart Tantan Dzalikha pull-back just 12 minutes into the game.
The hosts, who had drawn their previous two games of the season, had chances to extend their lead. But they had to wait until 13 minutes from time to seal the win.
It was worth the wait for the near 22,000 crowd. A delicious through ball from Shohei Matsunaga dissected the Sriwijaya defence for Febri Haryadi to shoot home from just inside the area.
Moments later, Essien, who had scored the previous week, came off the bench for the last 10 minutes. Cole did not make an appearance.
Coach Djadjang played down his selection.
"I have chosen a different line-up for each of the three games so far," he told reporters. "We have a good strength of depth in the squad. It was a good performance for us and we had chances to win by a greater margin but Sriwijaya defended well."
Madura United missed the chance to move into the top three by letting slip the lead twice at home to Mitra Kuka to be held to a 2-2 draw.
Peter Odemwingie grabbed his second goal of the season since arriving from England in early April. The Nigerian winger latched onto a loose ball in the opposition half and, from the edge of the area, fired home a fierce shot into the roof of the net.
Brazilian striker Marclei headed home a free kick to equalise midway through the first half. But shortly after the restart, substitute Dane Milovanovic restored Madura's lead with a low left footer from just inside a crowded penalty area.
Anindito Wahyu also came off the bench to score, using his pace to get behind the home defence and shoot home with eight minutes remaining.
Elsewhere, PS TNI moved into third with a 2-1 win at Bhayangkara with Borneo level on points in fourth after defeated Gresik United 3-0.