“He is obviously got a lot of experience here in Sri Lanka”, Australia captain Steve Smith said of Muralitharan. They reminded everyone that, actually, these were quite good batting conditions. Nathan Lyon: 3 for 12 from three.
Advertisement
Debutant Dhananjaya de Silva top-scored with 24. So there should be.
Play had started early at the Pallekele Stadium after rain had washed off the final session of the opening day.
“He [O’Keefe] has worked really hard, he’s a really lively, buzzy character for us and played exactly the role we want him to play over here in this game”.
Certainly Australia’s bowlers deserve significant credit. Everything just seemed to go our way early on.
Kusal Perera, promoted to open the batting in place of regular Dimuth Karunaratne, was trapped lbw by fast bowler Mitchell Starc for four. Hazlewood was the man who pierced the Sri Lanka top order.
Hazlewood joined the party in the next over, dismissing Kusal Mendis in similar fashion before having Kaushal Silva edging to slip a few overs later as Sri Lanka stumbled to 18 for 3 early in the tenth over.
Time will tell what effect any rain and associated humidity have on the pitch, which was described by Smith as dry and prompted the inclusion of left-arm spinner Stephen O’Keefe in Australia’s XI over paceman Jackson Bird.
“The wicket will take spin for sure here”.
Sri Lanka’s cricket board lodged a complaint on Monday with the visiting Australians after their bowling consultant and local legend Muttiah Muralitharan was involved in a bust-up with his former colleagues. It was the only glimmer in an otherwise gloomy morning for the hosts.
Australia were all out for 203 in reply to Sri Lanka’s first innings total of 117, with spinner Lakshan Sandakan taking (4/58) and Rangana Herath (4/49) doing most of the damage.
De Silva, who had claimed his first Test runs with a six over long-off off O’Keefe, was caught bat-pad while Dilruwan Perera was rapped in front two balls later.
Rangana Herath became Starc’s second victim and Australia’s ninth after Smith successfully overturned the umpire’s “not out” decision for leg before on review. SL will be looking to take the advantage of playing on the home soil and create history by beating Australia in this 3 match series.
After losing openers David Warner and Joe Burns, Khawaja (25) and Smith (28) steadied the ship for Australia by sharing a modest 59-run unbeaten stand for third wicket.
The rot started for Australia when Smith tried to assert himself on Herath.
Advertisement
Sri Lanka have only just returned home from a disastrous tour of England where they failed to win any of their nine Tests and limited overs internationals.
