Quantcast

Match Report:

Scorecard

Kandy rain halts Australian charge

Smith, Khawaja steer Aussies past early wobble after bowlers routed Sri Lanka for 117

In his quest to overturn a decade of sub-optimal Test results by Australian teams venturing into Asian conditions, Steve Smith wanted to deliver a clear statement of intent at the outset of the three-match series in Sri Lanka.

It could scarcely have been more emphatic.

Even the loss of the final session to rain would have done little to quell the warm feeling in the Australia dressing room as they ended the day 2-66 and just 51 runs in arrears with Smith (16no) and Usman Khawaja (20no) to resume at the start of an extended day two.

The only variable that did not fall ostensibly in Australia’s favour was the coin when the toss was conducted under glaring sun a half an hour prior to play starting at Pallekele, but even that ended up yielding the tourists a clear win after little time had elapsed.

As with any new adventure in the developing world, there were the inevitable, unplanned setbacks.

An inexplicable misfield on the seemingly flawless grass outfield.

An extraordinary dive, gather and throw that deserved a run out but ultimately went down as a missed chance.

The loss of a couple of openers for barely a contribution that, for a while, threatened to redress the balance of what had loomed – and eventually became – a most lopsided day.

But the balance sheet that matters reported an Australian dominance that Smith could only have silently wished for after the months of planning and the weeks of practice that have gone into this series which Australia views as their chance to start turning around a decade of subcontinent disappointment.

Sri Lanka’s decision to bat first backfiring badly as they were bowled out for 117 in a tick more than 34 overs and two and a half hours.

Watch all 10 wickets in Sri Lanka's collapse

Their lowest total in the first innings of a Test since they were skittled by Shaun Pollock and South Africa for 95 at Cape Town in 2001, and the smallest first effort in a five-day match since … well, since day one at Trent Bridge last year when Australia batted in name only to make 60.

However, the conditions at Pallekele offered little resemblance to that Nottingham nightmare where the ball did just enough to make batting fraught and England’s fielders hauled in more than a Negombo prawn trawler.

For a start, the clouds that sweep low over the surrounding peaks of the Sri Lankan hill country were not sufficiently heavy to facilitate pronounced swing and apart from the string of bouncers Mitchell Starc trialled in his opening spell the pitch looked decidedly low and slow.

Conditions to which, in keeping with Smith’s pre-Test mantra, the Australians adapted quickly and wholly as Starc and his new-ball partner Josh Hazlewood settled into full lengths and a line that was calculated to infuriate rather than intimidate.

Australia dominate opening session at Pallekele

And the Sri Lankan batsman, perhaps expecting to be met with fire, fell for the trap and played at balls they might well have left or – in the case of second-highest scorer Kusal Perera – let alone ones they ought to have defended.

Even allowing for lack of experience in the home team, which was fielding a pair of Test debutants which took their tally of new caps over the past nine Test matches to seven, this was an abject innings.

Hazlewood’s figures of 3-21 from 10 overs might suggest he was bending the ball around corners, but rather he was landing it spots that batsmen least like and was rewarded for his patience.

And backed up by some tidy catching behind the wicket by ‘keeper Peter Nevill and first slipper Adam Voges.

He tore apart the top order after Starc had set the tone by getting pronounced swing with the new ball, using his bouncer prudently to keep opener Dimuth Karunaratne rooted to his crease and then pinning him in front with a ball that swung late and at sharp pace.

Starc swings back into the groove

When Smith decided to spell his spearhead he opted to introduce left-arm spinner Stephen O’Keefe into the attack ahead of his number one spinner Nathan Lyon and had his instincts rewarded.

Despite arriving at the crease with his team on the brink at 3-18, Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews decided to go after Australia’s least experienced bowler and slapped O’Keefe to the cover fence for four.

But two overs later O’Keefe had his man and Australia were eyeing a greenhorn batting order with only vice-captain Dinesh Chandimal looming as a known obstacle when Mathews failed to cover the left-armer’s slow turn and popped a catch to slip.

Where Smith fittingly waited.

Chandimal and debutant Dhananjaya de Silva fashioned the last significant partnership of what was already resembling a failed innings – 24 from a comparably resolute 70 balls that hinted of a determination that soon subsided.

De Silva, who joined a small and commensurately obscure club of batters whose initial scoring shot in Test cricket was a six, made more remarkable given the circumstances in which he arrived, also enjoys the honour of being his team’s leading scorer in his first outing.

Smith, Khawaja consolidate at tea

But when he squeezed the second ball after the lunch break from Lyon to short leg, and the Australia off-spinner (brought into the attack an over prior to the adjournment) and then Lyon trapped Dilruwan Perera in front two balls later the end was nigh.

Opener David Warner made a brief return to the Test game, chopping a ball on to his stumps via a hefty inside edge and his back leg for a duck.

And Joe Burns fell to left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, who opened the bowling, when he somehow failed to cover an arm ball having made three.

But if a marker was to be laid in this series and Australia were to return to the subcontinent with surety, this will undoubtedly be viewed as a telling day in that journey.

Australia eager to claim early mental edge

AUSTRALIA XI: David Warner, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith (c), Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh, Peter Nevill (wk), Steve O'Keefe, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon

SRI LANKA XI: Dimuth Karunaratne, Kaushal Silva, Kusal Mendis, Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Angelo Mathews (c), Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Perera, Dilruwan Perera, Rangana Herath, Nuwan Pradeep, Lakshan Sandakan