Dilruwan and Herath take Sri Lanka closer to ‘Warne-Murali’ trophy

Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera produced world-class performances to take Sri Lanka inevitably closer to their second-ever Test series win over Australia on day two in their second Test match at Galle International Stadium on Friday.

Herath’s first Test hat-trick, Dilruwan’s all-round contributions, 6 wickets with the ball and 64 runs with the bat stole the limelight from Mitchell Starc’s individual brilliance with the ball (11/94 match bag) as 21 wickets fell on an entertaining day’s of cricket.

Sri Lanka have only beaten Australia in a Test series in 1999 but have never won the ‘Warne-Muralitharan’ trophy after it was unveiled in 2007. The home team need 7 more wickets tomorrow (6th August) to seal the deal.

Photos – Sri Lanka vs Australia 2nd Test Match – Day 2

After being set a world-record target of 413, Australia lost three wickets in the final 6 overs of the day. Joe Burns drove straight to Dhananjaya De Silva at short-covers off Rangana Herath in the first over of the Australian innings.

Few overs later, Nathan Lyon was caught by a diving Kaushal Silva at silly-point while Usman Khawaja left a straight delivery in the first-ball he faced to give two in two for Dilruwan Perera.

Earlier in the first session, Khawaja started off the famous ‘Galle’ parade when he played Perera on the back foot off the last ball of his over, got himself in a tangle and was castled through the gate. The very next ball, Steve Smith was clean bowled in a similar fashion, this time off Herath.

In the 4th ball of the 25th over, Herath bowled a flighted delivery outside the off-stump which Voges drove uppishly towards the extra-cover region where Dimuth Karunarathne took a brilliant catch diving to his left.

Peter Nevill was struck plumb in front with the next delivery and out came Starc to face the hat-trick ball. He was given not out initially to a ball that hit his knee roll but the DRS overturned the decision to make Herath only the second Sri Lankan to take a Test hat-trick; Nuwan Zoysa was the 1st to do so in 1998 against Zimbabwe.

A Dilruwan Perera delivery took Lyon’s inside edge and he was caught brilliantly by Kusal Mendis at short-leg. A few overs later he caught Josh Hazlewood’s outside edge and had him caught comfortably at slip by Angelo Mathews.

Mitchell Marsh was the last batsmen to be dismissed when he holed out to chinaman bowler, Lakshan Sandakan at deep mid-off as Karunaratne completed a brilliant running catch.

The miserable form of the Sri Lankan openers continued in the second innings as Kaushal Silva edged to first-slip off Hazelwood while Karunarathne officially confirmed himself as the ‘bunny’ of Starc, being dismissed all four times by the Australian left-armer during this series, this time giving a thick edge to gully.

At 9 for 2, just as Sri Lanka were yesterday in their first innings, Kusal Mendis and Kusal Perera needed to rebuild the innings but the former failed to make it count after being dropped on 5. He was caught behind off Starc as the home team went into lunch on 31 for 3.

After lunch, Kusal Perera and Angelo Mathews played aggressively to take on the Australian bowling during their 56-ball 4^th wicket stand worth 48 before Perera played a rather loose cut shot and got himself bowled off a Lyon delivery which went on with the arm.

Vice-captain Dinesh Chandimal was caught behind for 13 to give Mitchell Starc his 8^th wicket of the match. Mathews’ positive intent of taking on the bowlers worked fine until he failed to connect a reverse-sweep off Lyon and was bowled for 47. His excellent use of feet against the spinners and the resistance shown against the reverse-swing was exceptional.

The lower middle-order prospered for Sri Lanka as Dilruwan Perera was involved in two 50+ partnerships with Dhananjaya De Silva and Herath. De Silva’s enterprising knock of 34 was ended by Starc as the former Richmondite, playing at his home ground edged behind.

Herath played a few cheeky shots before he chopped on onto the stumps while trying to reverse-sweep Jon Holland.

In the very next over, Starc returned to clean up Dilruwan and Vishwa Fernando in consecutive balls to end Sri Lanka’s second innings on 237.

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