Being invited by Australia to grace their most prestigious boxing day test, Sri Lanka sent the large contingent of their supporters present into ‘depths of despair’ in the 1st day of the 2nd test.
Opting to bat first they put on a pathetic display of batting, crumbling for 156 with only Kumar Sangakkara steadfastly getting to a 58. Sangakkara reached his 10,000 runs becoming the 11the player in the history of the game to do so. He remained in the astute company Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar who took exactly the same number of innings to reach their 10,000 runs.
The pitch as all Australian pitches suited the home bowling but unlike at Hobart did not hold many terrors. In the face of continued precise bowling, the Sri Lankan batmen could not hold concentration firm enough to see out the shining cherry.
The effort put in by them to hold their own in the 1st test, seems to have taken the wind out of their sail with fighting intentions solely absent; they appeared to have no heart in the game. Sri Lanka still not having developed potential replacements for Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena, spread that sinking feeling among the fans that the down trend is very much on.
New boy Dimuth Karunarathne started ‘outside off stump corridor’ slump by edging to Wade off a swinging Bird delivery. T M Dilshan showed inadequate technique driving a Mitchell Johnson ball which found the gap between his bat and pad to sneak in to rattle the stumps. Jayawardena edged to wicket keeper Wade to have Sri Lanka reeling at 3 for 37.
When anchor man Thilan Samawarweera skied one that got big on him, hitting him on the glove the writing was on the wall for Sri Lanka. Angelo Mathews took on an aggressive stance but perished playing away from his body and being caught brilliantly by Hussey in the slips. Prasanna Jaywardena was sent packing by Johnson when he was wrapped on the hand that ended in a trip to the hospital for xray. The lone vigil of Sangakkara ended dismally as well when a pull shot to a Johnson delivery went radically wrong and wicket keeper Wade ran back a distance to have a ball land safely in his gloves. Sri Lanka was 147 for 8 at this time and eventually held out for 156 with bowlers collapsing to Mitchell Johnson who ended up with figures of 4 for 63 with Bird and Siddle doing initial damage for 2 wickets each.
Despite excellent showing in the 1st test where Sri Lanka dragged Australia into a 4th innings and 5th day and lost by 137 runs, the 1st day of the second test was an embodiment of a lack of self belief.
Sangakkara took over gloves due to injury to Prasanna Jaywardena as the Sri Lankan bowlers failed to make an impression on the Aussie openers. Two missed catches of Shane Watson by Sangakkara and Michael Clarke by Dilshan added to the doom. After the initial onslaught of David Warner who was dismissed caught in the deep by Dhammika Prasad off Mathews for a threatening 62, the run out of Hughes(10) shortly and Cowan removed by Prasad caught by Jaywardena for 36, Sri Lanka tightened up the bowling and started believing in themselves to pull back the match. Watson and Clarke were on a 33 run partnership when play ended for the day with Australia 150 for 3 just 6 runs behind the Sri Lankan first innings total.
Australia showed Sri Lanka a simple lesson of full length bowling and swing but amateurish Sri Lankan bowling kept banging it in to try and get similar potency to the Australian bowlers. The fact that the entire battery of Sri Lankan bowlers were averagely slower than the Australians made a big difference too. But the wickets of two big men in Watson and Clarke would added a lot of might to the Sri Lankan fight tomorrow.
