Khawaja and Green make it Australia’s day

 Cameron Green and Alex Carey put on 84 runs for the 6th wicket to give Australia the lead

• Lead by 101 runs on second day of first Test

Usman Khawaja acknowledges his 50

Seventies from Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green coupled with a sprightly 45 of 47 balls from Alex

Carey put Australia firmly in front in the Warne-Muralitharan trophy first Test played at the Galle International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

Replying to Sri Lanka’s first innings total of 212, Australia finished a rain truncated second day on 313-8, to enjoy a lead of 101 with two first innings wickets still intact.

Anything over 100 was going to be an advantage on a spinning surface and at the moment Australia held all the aces having shown the discipline in their bowling as well as their batting.  

In the morning it looked like there would not be any play for the day for the carnage the rain and blustery winds left behind sweeping in its midst a canopy tent that would have accommodated spectators for tickets priced at Rs. 5,000 (all five days) and the sheltering of the TV cameraman perched on top at the Galle Fort end and, parts of the sight screen removed from its scaffoldings.

But the sudden manner in which it appeared the weather disappeared for by afternoon the sky was clear as day and bright sunshine that allowed nearly two sessions of play for the day, brought forward only by bad light that left 15 overs underutilised.

The loss of the entire morning did not matter for Australia as they plundered 135 runs off 27 overs in the afternoon session with Green and Carey in full control so that they took Australia into the lead with both in sight of their respective half centuries at tea.

Although Green got there off 80 balls Carey perished with his score on 45 scored off 47 balls when he skied a ball from Ramesh Mendis to be brilliantly held by Dinesh Chandimal running backwards at wide mid-off. But by then the damage had been done.     

The partnership of 84 off 93 balls between Green and Carey gave Australia a firm hold on the game and it really hurt Sri Lanka. It came at a crucial juncture when they had lost Tim Head to the seventh ball of the day without adding to his overnight score and Khawaja for a well-constructed 71 of 130 balls (7 fours) to Jeffrey Vandersay giving the bowler his first Test wicket on debut. 

Khawaja and Green added 57 off 77 balls for the fifth wicket. At 157-5 Australia were still not out of the woods but Green and Carey did what was required of them. A feature of their right-hand/left-hand partnership was the splendid rotation of strike and running between the wickets that hardly allowed the Lankan spinners to settle down.

Green showed great poise in his innings of 77 striking six fours off 109 balls and playing the main role in Australia’s dominance that saw 178 runs being scored during his 183-minute stay in the middle. Although Sri Lanka managed to take three wickets in the final session, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon further frustrated them with an unfinished stand of 35. For the most part, the Lankan spinners lacked control and were made to pay for it dearly. Of the 61 overs bowled by them there wasn’t a single maiden over, the solitary maiden in the innings so far coming from seamer Asitha Fernando.

The effectiveness of Ramesh Mendis, Vandersay and Dhananjaya de Silva was nullified to a certain extent by the poor form displayed by Lasith Embuldeniya who leaked runs from one end not keeping it tight. It seems that he has not learnt from his Bangladesh experience and on what grounds he came to be selected was hard to fathom. 

Seeing how poorly Embuldeniya bowled it was a surprise why Dhananjaya de Silva was under-bowled after he had provided Sri Lanka with the first breakthrough of the day with the wicket of Head. De Silva’s five overs cost eight runs and he had a wicket to boot.

Sri Lanka’s spin bowling coach Piyal Wijetunge said that bowling was about partnerships. “I don’t think we did that today. When Ramesh was bowling well, I thought we could have used DDS more. I thought we under bowled DDS. Then it could have been a lot more different.”

“They (the Australians) had a plan and as soon as they saw the wicket was spinning, they started to sweep and reverse sweep. They succeeding in doing so. The credit should go to the Aussie batsmen as they handled spin better than our batters.”