Burns and Head grind down Sri Lanka in Canberra

Australia’s Joe Burns (right) and Travis Head shake hands as they walk back to the pavilion during a tea break on day one of the second Test cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka at Manuka Oval Cricket Ground in Canberra on 1 February – AFP

Sri Lanka’s Lahiru Thirimanne (left) drops a catch off Australia’s Kurtis Patterson (right) during day one of the second Test cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Manuka Oval Cricket Ground in Canberra on 1 February – AFP

Sri Lanka’s Sports Minister Harin Fernando looks on during the first day of the second and final Test cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Manuka Oval in Canberra on 1 February – AFP

Sri Lanka’s paceman Vishwa Fernando bowls during the first day of the second and final Test cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Manuka Oval in Canberra on 1 February – AFP

• Score centuries in 308-run stand as Sri Lanka drop four catches

Joe Burns and Travis Head both plundered scores in excess of 150 during a punishing 308-run stand - the 7th highest fourth wicket partnership by an Australian pair – asSri Lanka’s inexperienced seam attack was ground into the Manuka Oval turf on the opening day of the second and final Test in Canberra. 

Australia ended the day on 384 for 4, with Burns still at the crease unbeaten on 172 alongside Kurtis Patterson on 25 not out.

For Sri Lanka, a day which had started off better than they could have hoped, ended with almost any hope of them levelling the series being extinguished. After being asked to bowl on a surface which held little in it for the bowlers, Sri Lanka’s inexperienced pace attack of Kasun Rajitha, Vishwa Fernando and debutant Chamika Karunaratne – with just the five Test matches played between them – couldscarcely have believed the start they achieved. 

With not even 10 overs played the home side had been reduced to 28 for 3. Fernando with all the experience of two career Tests had capitalised on equal parts early swing and Australian over exuberance to send both Marcus Harris and Usman Khawaja back to the dressing room.

Harris had hit a careless square drive to a wide Fernando outswinger straight to point, while another full outswinger saw Khawaja offer a false drive, this time edging to second slip. Karunaratne would then get his maiden Test scalp, getting a good length delivery to seam away and catch the edge of MarnusLabuschagne’s bat through to the keeper.

But after that early burst, the Sri Lankan seamers’ inexperience began to tell; no doubt buoyed by their rich early dividends the trio of Rajitha, Fernando and Karunaratne, might have been guilty of striving too hard for further wicket-taking deliveries. Where disciplined, probing line and length was the need of the hour, they instead descended into a scattergun of short balls, fuller deliveries, both at and away from the stumps.

For Burns and Head, on a pitch that got progressively easier to bat on as the ball softened, this provided the ideal platform to make hay with both the proverbial and literal sun shining.

Whereas earlier in the innings Khawaja and Harris had faulted, flaying at wide deliveries, the increasing lack of movement offered by the older ball meant Burns and Head could do as they pleased with the same offerings.

Of Burns’ 172 runs, 139 of them came square either side of the wicket with 41 coming from the cut shot alone. The pick of the bunch however may have been a perfectly poised front foot pull to the square leg boundary. That took him to 99, after which a defensive drop shot to the offside brought up Burns’ and Australia’s first century of the season.

Sri Lanka’s ill-discipline with ball meant Australia could also maintain a run rate comfortably above four an over, despite those early wickets.

In fact, nearly 60% of the runs in their 300-plus partnership were in boundaries, with the pair dispatching 44 fours and one glorious six, which Head lofted over the sightscreen having skipped down the track to Dilruwan Perera. Head would bring up his maiden ton in similar fashion, advancing down the wicket to drive Dilruwan for four to the mid-off fence.

What few chances Sri Lanka had to end the partnership were grassed, most notably when Burns was dropped on 34 after a top edge off Dilruwan was put down by Dananjaya de Silva - it was a difficult chance but one Sri Lanka will no doubt rue in hindsight.

Beyond that, chances were few and far between, with the odd run opportunity and edge into space frustrating the Lankan attack. With the partnership nearing 300, Head was also dropped, once more by Dananjaya, but this time off his own bowling. That wouldn’t prove to be nearly as costly however, as Fernando would have Head trapped leg before the very next over for a 204-ball 161.

The next dropped chance though will undoubtedly have left Sri Lanka’s new fielding coach Steve Rixon, as tough a taskmaster as you’re likely to find, extremely frustrated. Patterson’s defensive prod to Dananjaya caught the inside edge and ballooned to short leg, but what should have been a routine take was made a hash of by Lahiru Thirimanne. By stumps Patterson had already salted those wounds cracking two boundaries and a six, as he and Burns had nearly added another 50 runs to home side’s already towering total. (MB)