Australia and Sri Lanka share honours on day one

Mitchell Starc recorded the best-ever bowling figures by a visiting pacer, 5 for 44 as Australia and Sri Lanka shared honours on day one in their second Test which started today at Galle International Stadium.

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Starc’s fifth five-wicket haul enabled Australia to restrict the home team to 281 after Kusal Mendis top-scored with an eye-pleasing 86. In reply, Australia lost 2 wickets for 54 before stumps were raised including the rampaging David Warner for 42 in the last over. The visitors are still 227 runs behind.

Earlier in the day, after opting to bat first, Sri Lanka got off to the worst-ever start when Dimuth Karunarathne continued his dismal form with the bat becoming only the second Sri Lankan after Sanath Jayasuriya to be dismissed in the first ball of a Test match, flicking it uppishly to square-leg off Starc

Few overs later, the tall and lanky, Starc struck again with a full and wide delivery enticing Kaushal Silva to chase and knick to wicket-keeper, Peter Nevill as the Islanders were 2 down for just 9.

After consuming 13 balls to get off the mark, Mendis stroked a few atrocious shots through the leg-side, slog-sweeping Nathan Lyon over deep mid-wicket, flicking the seamers through the mid-wicket and mid-on region.

Kusal Janith Perera played the second-fiddle throughout the 108-run third-wicket stand with Mendis even though the left-handed one-drop batsman collected most of his boundaries in front of the wicket, playing some of his trademark slaps through the covers and mid-wicket region.

Photo Album – Sri Lanka vs Australia 2nd Test Match – Day 1

After going into lunch on 47, Perera could only add two more runs to his score before he was squared up by a Nathan Lyon delivery and ended up edging to first-slip.

Skipper Mathews showed positive intent from the word ‘go’ as he stepped out of his crease and launched his first six off the second ball. He even brought out the reverse-sweep to counter Lyon and charged down Holland to smash two more sixes.

Mendis got a reprieve when he was initially given out LBW off Hazelwood on 78 but the DRS overturned the umpire’s decision as hawk-eye clearly showed the ball would miss the stumps.

The ‘Prince of Moratuwa’ could not reach his second Test century when he was caught behind off Starc to become the 100^th Test wicket for the Australian left-arm fast-bowler.

Vice-Captain Dinesh Chandimal did not stay for long as he fell to the reverse-swing trap of the Aussies, flicking straight to mid-wicket off Hazelwood.

Mathews resisted the reverse-swing ploys of the Aussies before playing  a rather poor cut shot as soon as he reached his 25^th half-century off Mitchell Marsh to end the 25-run 6^th wicket stand right after the tea break.

Dhananjaya De Silva was dropped on 17 by Steve Smith at first slip off Marsh but played a few crisp boundaries before completely missing a full-toss and being adjudged LBW off debutant Jon Holland.

The Sri Lankan tail did not trouble the scores much as Starc returned for his 4^th spell to castle Lakshan Sandakan and Rangana Herath cheaply.

Sri Lanka’s 137^th Test player, Vishwa Fernando drew early blood when Joe Burns pulled straight to square-leg in the second ball of the Australian innings.

Warner and Usman Khawaja took on the Sri Lankan bowlers in a street-smart approach to score 54 at 4.10 per over before Warner was caught sharply at first-slip by Angelo Mathews off Dilruwan Perera.

Full Scorecard