Debutant Dhananjaya de Silva top scored with just 24 for the home team, whose batting order still looks flimsy after the loss of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. Sandakan also chipped in with his first Test wicket, that of Mitchell Marsh, who had struck five boundaries on his way to 31 when he failed to pick Sandakan’s wrong’un and was bowle to leave Australia at 130 for 5.
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Australia grabbed a handy 86-run lead in the first innings over Sri Lanka and dealt an early blow with the new ball before rain washed out the entire final session for the second consecutive day in the first test at Pallekele on Wednesday.
The winners of the three-Test series gets the (Shane) Warne-Muralitharan trophy.
Cricket legend Muttiah Muralitharan is at the centre of a heated controversy ahead of the first Test between Sri Lanka and Australia, with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) accusing the off-spinner of berating the manager and conducting centre-wicket training at the Pallekele Cricket Stadium without permission.
Left-armer Mitchell Starc will be back after a long injury layoff to lead Australia’s pace attack. Australia will also be helped by former cricketer and Sri Lankan bowling great Muthiah Muralitharan which has irritated a few fans but Australia will look to take whatever advantage that can come their way because of that.
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.
“They’ve got a pretty inexperienced line-up and we’ll try to get on top of that as much as we can”.
Smith echoed coach Darren Lehmann’s analysis when he said O’Keefe was “quite similar” to Sri Lanka’s wily match-winning threat, Rangana Herath.
He said he was never seriously approached by Sri Lanka Cricket for a mentoring role ever since he retired in 2011.
Australia tour Sri Lanka for three Test matches followed by five ODI’s and two T20’s.
Mitch Marsh has enjoyed a productive start to his career with the ball, claiming 25 wickets at 34.52 in 15 Tests, but his batting (437 runs at an average of 23) – with one half-century and three scores in 40s – has yet to click. The pacer acknowledged that the first innings runs are going to be crucial but felt the performance with the ball will help them dominate throughout the series.
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Australia lost openers David Warner and Joe Burns inside the first four overs of their reply but Usman Khawaja and captain Steve Smith steadied the ship, putting on an unbroken 59 to take the tourists to 66 for two at tea.
