Australia are yet to lose a Test under Steven Smith’s captaincy, and he will be desperate to ensure that continues on his first tour of Asia as skipper.
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The onus was on Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal but neither batsman could do much.
Josh Hazlewood was most impressive, bang on the money from the start in taking 3-21 from 10 tight overs.
Sri Lanka’s top scorer was Dhananjaya de Silva who managed a modest 24 before he was caught at short leg off the bowling of Nathan Lyon. Sri Lanka’s best partnership: 25. Surely this was a bowler’s paradise?
Rain then washed away the entire final session of the opening day.
“While playing against the Aussies we should be courageous and play positively, and if we do that we can beat them”. Hazlewood especially found just enough movement early in the day to be constantly threatening.
Mitchell Starc, returning after eight months of injury, drew first blood for the visitors. Sandakan soon added the wicket of Steve O’Keefe, who fought hard for 23 off 80 balls before he was caught at short leg off a wrong’un. He was the next man to walk to the crease and, after offering some resistance, was also the next to walk off.
Smith had called on the left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe in the ninth over of the match and some turn was immediately evident.
“The wicket will take spin for sure here”. He dug in after that, but wickets kept falling at the other end as Sri Lanka strove to keep the contest alive after a disappointing outing by their batsmen in the first essay.
Before training, Smith was presented with the International Cricket Council Test Championship mace and $1 million in prize money after his team finished at the top of the ICC rankings by the April cut-off. It was the only glimmer in an otherwise gloomy morning for the hosts.
Once the hardness goes out of the ball, both sides will be looking to get some reverse swing which can be just as lethal as spin as the pitch wears.
The innings lasted less than seven overs after the interval, with Lyon striking twice in the over after lunch and doing most of the damage.
“It’s tacky at the moment, was quite wet yesterday when I looked, and they’ve taken a bit of grass off today, so have another look tomorrow”. Two balls later Dilruwan Perera was struck in front for a duck. “Sri Lanka has not tried to make use of my services, so I am helping the Australians who value my contributions”.
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Starc trapped opener Dimuth Karunaratne (5) lbw in the fifth over to give Australians to start the batting collapse. These two sides last met in a three-Test match series at Australia in 2012/2013. They had just settled in when the rain did the same.
