Kusal Mendis continued his good form, top-scoring with 86 for Sri Lanka and sharing 108 runs for the third wicket with Kusal Perera (49) and 67 runs with Mathews (54) after Sri Lanka slumped to 9-2. Debutant left-arm spinner Jon Holland will replace the injured Steve O’Keefe and will partner off-spinner Nathan Lyon.
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The locals will nearly certainly be without fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep, who has strained a hamstring.
Australia’s Mitchell Starc celebrates with teammates after taking a wicket with the first ball.
Kaushal Silva (five) also fell to an innocuous Starc delivery but Mendis and Perera staged a brilliant recovery, finding boundaries regularly during their century stand.
Apart from Starc, Mitchell Marsh and Josh Hazlewood too came up with special treatment for the hosts as the two created pressure on the batsmen.
Angelo Mathews-led side won the first test match comfortably riding ion the brilliant hundred of Kushal Mendis and then, Herath exposed the sub-continent batting woes of Australia.
Mendis’s maiden Test hundred could not mask the fragility of the Sri Lankan batting line-up, as no other batsman passed 50. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 281 runs in 73.1 overs.
Australia’s prospects of overhauling the Sri Lankans were undermined right at the close when vice captain David Warner edged Dilruwan Perera to slip off the last ball of the day after a quickfire 42 off 41 balls. Obviously their spinners will try to get as much out of it as they can.
Mathews said the team will wait till Thursday for Pradeep to get fit, failing which uncapped left-arm seamer Vishwa Fernando could be drafted in. “I thought overall we bowled quite well to all the batsmen today”. “If you had faced reverse swing for a while, you feel little bit comfortable but, if you have just come to the crease, it’s hard”.
0 – Never before in the history of Tests has the opening partnership in the first two innings of a match lasted 3 or fewer balls.
Mendis, who scored a match-winning 176 in the first Test in Pallekele, showed his intent by slog-sweeping the Australian spinner Nathan Lyon for the game’s first six in the 14th over.
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Australian coach Darren Lehmann has already acknowledged that the surface on Sri Lanka’s southwestern coast is likely to turn from the outset and benefit the hosts’ spin-laden line-up.
