Smith's side makes desired statement

It wasn't quite Trent Bridge 2015 inverted, but the pace at which Australia knocked over a clearly overwhelmed and under-resourced Sri Lankan Board XI in less than an hour-and-a-half today elicited the same accompanying chorus of bewilderment, frustration and triumphalism.

Bewilderment from a batting line-up, admittedly a member shy due to the shoulder injury sustained by opener Madawa Warnapura while fielding a day earlier, that had few clues against the pace and swing of Mitchell Starc armed with a new ball and even less idea in countering the spinners who followed.

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Frustration from the few Sri Lankan supporters who gathered at the historic Tamil Union ground in Colombo's lush inner east, and the many others who are already voicing their disillusionment with a national team undergoing marked transition and its recent winless tour to the UK.

And muted triumphalism from the Australian touring party that delivered emphatically on skipper Steve Smith's rallying call at the start of their bowling innings to send a clear message in their final day of competitive preparation before next week's opening Test in Kandy.

"Steve Smith came here today and said 'let's really make a statement'," Test spinner Nathan Lyon said in the wake of his team's thumping 162-run win inside seven sessions after the local XI succumbed for 83 in just 20.5 overs this morning.

"Taking nine wickets in a session to close out a win is a pretty big statement."

If there was a disappointment for the Australians out of a practice match that was clearly going to stay strictly true to its title from the moment Starc struck with the third ball to set a menacing tone, it was that the local players succumbed so meekly in their home conditions.

With neither inclination or acumen to handle the finger spin which forms such a staple of their cricket development diet, with the Australian tweakers collecting 7-35 between them from just under 12 overs of carnage in the second innings.

Which ensured Lyon and his spin partner Steve O'Keefe – indisputably the player of the match with 10 wickets and an unbeaten 78 in Australia's innings – accompanied by Starc, spent a lengthy post-stumps session bowling extra overs on the vacated centre wicket.

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While their batter teammates who were deprived of a second innings under match conditions hit countless balls sent down by eager members of the National Performance Squad in the P Sara practice nets.

But given that tour matches so often nowadays are pointless, drawn-out affairs on unsporting pitches that serve to tire rather than train already heavily-worked international players, this outing came as close to ideal for the Australians' purposes as any of its most-recent genre.

A full day in the field on day one when all the bowlers – with the exception of seamer Josh Hazlewood, who was rested from the fixture given his recent workload – had the chance to reacquaint themselves with the red ball and the vagaries of subcontinental conditions in prolonged spells.

The batters then enjoyed significant individual and collective contributions on day two with all except Lyon posting double-figure scores.

And then rather than be subjected to an energy-draining day of fielding today while the opposition laboured towards a notional target, the Australians enjoyed a breezy 88 minutes of bowling and celebrating as their rivals spectacularly imploded.

With the sort of car-crash hypnotic effect of Australia's now infamous showing at Nottingham a year ago when they were knocked over for 60 before lunch on the opening day and coughed up the Ashes as a consequence.

"I don't know what you're talking about…" Lyon deftly deflected when asked if it was nice to be on the other side of a rare rout of that magnitude in a first-class game.

But the fight that had slowly ebbed from the largely unheralded Board XI thrown together for this tour match over the first two days evaporated completely in today's morning heat when the Australians opted not to foreclose their first innings.

Despite holding a 202-run lead at the end of day two and with only last pair O'Keefe and Jackson Bird in occupation, Smith chose to bat on, which enabled the 10th wicket to add a dispiriting 58.

With Bird posting his highest first-class score (32) and O'Keefe coming within a few hefty swings of his maiden century in senior Australian company.

By the time the Board XI got to bat a second time, the deficit had blown out beyond 250 and they showed minimal interest in narrowing that gap much further.

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Starc ensured opener Oshada Fernando finished with a pair of inglorious first-over ducks, then forcibly removed the stumps of number three Manoj Sanathchandra for the same tally to have the locals effectively 3-1 in the third over.

From there, as the Australians saw first-hand in the Nottingham nightmare, free-fall is only a couple of quick breakthroughs away.

It duly arrived when O'Keefe was brought into the attack after half an hour and took care of first-innings top-scorer Asela Gunaratne and then Shehan Jayasuriya in his second over.

Lyon grabbed his first of the match an over later with rival captain Milinda Siriwardana's tame poke to slip suggesting an unexpected timidity against spin, which in turn seemed to prompt the tail to go down swinging.

It's unlikely the Australians will encounter any of the players who lined up for the Board XI in the subsequent Tests, although the make-up of Sri Lanka's squad for that match remains a mystery that might not be revealed until the end of this week.

Just days before the coin toss for the opening Test at Pallekele Stadium near Kandy.

However, the decision to supplement the touring party with some of Australia's brightest young prospects who are honing their skills with the National Performance Squad has been vindicated given the lack of meaningful match practice that emerged from day three (or a session thereof) of the sole warm-up fixture.

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With the NPS group now heading home, the 15-man Test squad travels to Kandy tomorrow and will spend a couple of days on light duties before finalising their preparation in the city of the ancient hill kingdom over the weekend.

Expecting a pitch that, according to Lyon, who is the only member of the current bowling group to boast Test experience in Sri Lanka, will provide scant resemblance to the P Sara strip on which his team signed off a most emphatic statement today.

"This one had grass, so I'll leave it at that," Lyon said diplomatically, and with a hint of a smile, when asked about how the decks are likely to compare.