Lakshan Sandakan enjoyed a fruitful debut with the ball as Sri Lanka’s spinners kept Australia at bay on the second day of the first Test in Pallekele.
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Earlier Tuesday, paceman Josh Hazlewood (3-21) and offspinner Nathan Lyon (3-12) took three wickets each to skittle Sri Lanka less than seven overs into the second session of the first test.
With Australia 70 for four, Adam Voges and Mitchell Marsh (31) then stitched together a 60-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
O’Keefe bagged 10 wickets in a warm-up match in Colombo last week.
On the eve of the first of three Tests, board president Thilanga Sumathipala accused Muralitharan of insulting Sri Lanka team manager Charith Senanayake in a row over the Australians’ use of a practice pitch in Colombo.
Against Australia, Mathews averages 49.88 and he has 449 runs from six Test matches making him one of the key batsmen in the upcoming series for Sri Lanka.
On Monday, Smith received the ICC Test championship mace and US$1m in prize money from ICC CEO David Richardson after Australia claimed the No1 ranking by the annual April 1 cut-off date. If you can get straight up (on them) on the first morning of a Test series, get on top of a few of their top-order batters, it does open up some scars, hopefully, for the back end of the tour on some not-so-friendly wickets for us quicks.
Mathews’ decision backfired badly, with the humid conditions and a green tinge to the pitch offering the Australian bowlers just enough ball movement both in the air and off the wicket. It is nice for people to have expectations, but when you are the captain I don’t think much about expectations.
“Lot of hard work ahead of us”, he said. Cricket-wise, through the foundation, we made about 30-40 wickets in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
“They’ve lost a lot of runs in Mahela and Kumar, they were incredibly experienced players”, said Smith.
The Sri Lankan legend, who is the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with 800 scalps, is now assisting Australian spin bowlers prepare for the Test series.
Although Australia have a clear lead over their main challengers, India, England and Pakistan could all theoretically topple them from the top spot if Smith’s lose against Sri Lanka and other results go against them.
“Professionally it is okay for Murali to coach any foreign team, but the irony is that he is supporting Australia which tried to get him out of cricket”, Sumathipala said. “I thought we were quite patient and bowled the usual great lines and lengths”.
The 25-year-old said that he was prepared to toil it out in the remaining matches and believes reverse swing will come into play much more than at Kandy.
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Sri Lanka 2nd innings: K Perera lbw b Starc 4, K Silva not out 2.
