It’s hard to judge whether Australia are planning to chase all the way to the end of day five in Colombo, but they’ve at least made a positive start in pursuit of the massive victory target to win the third Test against Sri Lanka.
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Warner started fluently and struck three fours and a six in moving to 44 but – on the stroke of lunch – Sri Lanka struck to remove Marsh.
Sri Lanka, who are pushing for a rare series whitewash after winning the first two Tests, were 312 for eight in their second innings at stumps on the fourth day at the Sinhalese Sports Club.
Kaushal Silva’s (115, 10×4) gritty knock played a big part in Sri Lanka registering their first series sweep against a major side since gaining Test status in 1981.
Australian pace spearhead Mitchell Starc changed his bowling boots in between overs and several lengthy team discussions were held on the pitch, prompting Mathews to call his batsmen back in the pavilion.
Australia in response, came up strongly and with Steve Smith (113) and Shaun Marsh (130), and posted a total of 379, taking 34 runs lead on Sri Lanka.
Herath, who has played 73 Tests and taken 332 wickets, was the leading wicket-taker in the three-match series against Australia with 28 wickets at a phenomenal average of 12.75.
“He had a groin strain, he couldn’t run, he couldn’t jump”.
Australia are unbeaten in home Test series since losing to South Africa in December 2012, but have struggled further afield.
“Very unfair, the ball didn’t beat the bat, he wasn’t beaten by much, just a little bit”. “The credit should go to Dhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal, the way they got us through the second and third sessions was fantastic and once again Rangana Herath doing his thing”.
Earlier, Pakistan’s most successful Test captain Misbahul Haq said that his side will deserve to be the world’s top-ranked Test team after a thumping victory at The Oval.
“Whitewash over the No 1 Test team, one of the greatest Test series wins. proud of the boys, Congratulations #SLvAUS”, Jayasuriya, who was at SSC to savour the historis win, tweeted.
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“We should be reasonably embarrassed by our performance in this series, and that’s OK”, he said.
