Sri Lanka´s president and former cricket legends Wednesday hailed the country´s first series whitewash against Australia after they registered an emphatic 163-run win in the final Test in Colombo.
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But following loses by 106 runs in Pallekele, 229 runs in Galle and 163 runs in Colombo, Australia have joined England on 108 points but is ranked above Alastair Cook’s side, while Sri Lanka have jumped to 95 points, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a media release on Wednesday. “This is one of the top series for us”, a beaming Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews after being handed the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy.
Set a formidable target of 324 in their second innings at the Sinhalese Sports Club, the World No. 1 Test side collapsed in the afternoon session on the fifth day and were all out for 160.
The loss was also Australia’s ninth straight defeat in Asia following a 2-0 loss to Pakistan in 2014 in the UAE and 4-0 hammering in 2013 at the hands of India.
“What we are doing isn’t working; batters aren’t adapting to the conditions, spin bowlers aren’t adapting to the conditions”.
“I can’t fault our quicks, I thought they did a great job, particularly Mitchell Starc”. The game began to turn Sri Lanka’s way as Herath castled Steven Smith (8) and trapped Adam Voges (1) LBW in the 27th over.
The opener David Warner shrugged off a poor series to score 68.
Dhananjaya de Silva followed up his first innings maiden century with an unbeaten 65.
All-rounder Mitchell Marsh hit the left-arm spinner for two consecutive boundaries, but the next ball edged him behind to the keeper, out for nine.
Sri Lanka was tottering at 26 for 5 on the first morning on winning the toss before centuries from Dinesh Chandimal and de Silva ensured it they reached a competitive 355.
The fact that man-of-the-series Rangana Herath took 28 wickets at 12.75 compared to Australia’s frontline spinner Nathan Lyon’s 16 at 31.93 is evidence the visitors were outbowled.
Sri Lanka had a minimum of 83 overs to bowl the Australians out; they needed only 44 and a ball.
India is now the top-ranked test team but second-ranked Pakistan will go top if India fails to win the fourth test match against West Indies, starting Thursday in Trinidad.
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Sri Lanka have moved up one spot to No6.
