Lacklustre Sri Lanka dismissed for 174
Sri Lanka v Australia, 2nd Test, Pallekele, 1st day
Ryan Harris again led a fine bowling performance from Australia as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 174 on the first day in Pallekele. It was an even more disappointing batting effort from the Sri Lankans than in Galle, given the state of the pitch: there was some seam movement early but overall it was a fine batting surface, and Tillakaratne Dilshan's decision to bat first was no surprise.What did raise eyebrows was the way the Sri Lankans started, as they stumbled to 14 for 3. But the biggest shock of the day came in the second session, when the world's fifth-ranked Test batsman was dismissed by the 125th-ranked bowler. Kumar Sangakkara had been steering Sri Lanka out of trouble, and had made a patient 48 when Michael Clarke asked Michael Hussey to have a trundle.
Hussey, 36, delivers gentle medium-pacers in the vicinity of 110kph, and had taken only two Test wickets: Paul Harris and Dwayne Bravo, both of whom had been caught in the deep. However, Sangakkara's concentration lapsed and he prodded Hussey's third ball straight to short cover, where Phillip Hughes took the catch. Hussey went on to complete a wicket maiden.
It was a terribly disappointing moment for the Sri Lankans, after Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews had put together a 52-run stand that looked like getting the team out of its early trouble. But after Suraj Randiv (4) pushed a return catch to Nathan Lyon and the debutant Seekkuge Prasanna was bowled by a Harris ball that seamed in, Sri Lanka looked like they would struggle to reach 200.
There were some late runs from Mathews, who brought up his half-century with a powerful six over mid-on from the bowling of Harris, but he tickled a catch behind off Mitchell Johnson for 58. The final wicket came when Chanaka Welegedara was taken at third slip by Trent Copeland off the bowling of Johnson, and Sri Lanka's 174 was their fifth-lowest total batting first in a Test at home.
Their problematic day began when three wickets fell in the first hour, as Harris and Trent Copeland swung and seamed the ball dangerously. Some deliveries in Harris' opening spell were almost unplayable, as he angled the ball in to the right-handers and then moved it away off the seam. However, it was the left-hander Tharanga Paranavitana who was the first victim of Harris, for a 12-ball duck, when he got a thin edge behind to a ball that went on with the natural angle from over the wicket.
Copeland was also moving the ball appreciably, and he produced a near perfect offcutter to get rid of Dilshan for 4. Dilshan has struggled to find the right rhythm in this series, either playing too many shots or too few, and this time it was the latter that brought his downfall when he shouldered arms to a delivery that nipped back sharply off the seam and clipped the very top of the off stump.
But the most uplifting moment for the Australians in the early stages came when Hussey, the oldest player in their team at 36, hurled himself to his left at gully to take a brilliant one-handed catch to get rid of the centurion from the first Test, Mahela Jayawardene, who made 4. Jayawardene had got a thick edge off Copeland and the ball was almost past Hussey when he clutched it in his left hand, and he was quickly mobbed by his team-mates.
Sangakkara and Thilan Samaraweera steadied with a 43-run partnership before Samaraweera (17) was caught behind off the inside edge, the victim of another Harris delivery that nipped in off the seam. He was followed soon after by Prasanna Jayawardene, who blasted a quick 18 but fell in the first over from Lyon, when he mistimed a sweep and was caught at deep midwicket.
Published by Unknown
on 03:30.
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