SL vs AUS | Fragile Sri Lanka collapse again despite Chandimal-Kusal resistance on Oz dominant Day 1

‌Brief score: SL [Chandimal 71, Kusal 59*; Starc 16-3-37-3] at Stumps on Day 1

Opting to bat first, Sri Lankan openers Dimuth Karunaratne -- playing his 100th and final Test -- and the returning Pathum Nissanka accrued 19 runs off the first seven overs against the new ball pair of Mitchell Starc and Matt Kuhnemann on a dry and dusty Galle track. The latter seemed to be troubling Nissanka time and again, seeing which Steve Smith brought his premier spinner Nathan Lyon onto the attack and the veteran took just four deliveries to capitalize on a desperate sweep attempt by rattling the stumps. Nevertheless, the experienced pair of Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal kept ticking the scoreboard along, the formner even gloriously taking on Kuhnemann with a six and a four in the 17th over. However, the Oz grip tightened as the ball grew older and dust puffs became bigger but the duo battled through to take Lunch at 87/1.

The break was exactly what the visitors needed as within 15 deliveries in the second session, Lyon showed brilliant variations of pace to deceive and castle Karunaratne for a well-made 36. Just three runs came off the next six overs as the pressure kept mounting and culminated in Angelo Mathews going fishing for a wide-ball from Lyon to end his 26-ball struggle for a solitary run. Kamindu Mendis fared better, managing 13 runs, but lasted only 21 balls before the golden arm of Travis Head had the prodigy caught at first slip. A half-hearted expansive drive by skipper Dhananjaya de Silva against Starc two balls later furthered the collapse as Lanka found themselves reeling a 127/5 even as Chandimal made his way to a half-century at the other end. With the ball also old and Starc extracting prodigous reverse swing in an unplayable spell, the opener dug deep alongside Kusal Mendis to avoid any further damage before Tea but much like earlier in the day, the break came back to haunt the hosts.

14 balls into the third session, Chandimal leant forward to defend Kuhnemann, only for the ball to spin and bounce past as Alex Carey whipped off the bails with the batter still off-balance and outside the crease. It took the Mendis pair of Kusal and Ramesh to finally stop the bleeding as they scraped together 65 runs to take the islanders past 200 and into competitive territory. However, once the new ball became available, Starc quickly moved the innings towards its endgame by having both Ramesh and Prabath Jaysuriya nick behind on consecutive deliveries. Understanding the need to rack up as many as quickly as possible, Kusal took charge with two commanding boundaries to bring up his fifty and after Kuhnemann got rid of Nishan Peiris, Lahiru Kumara survived 12 deliveries to keep the Lankan innings alive at Stumps.

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