Woeful Sri Lanka capitulate against spin

The chief destroyers of the Sri Lankan innings 

Mitchell Swepson

Travis Head

Player of the Match Cameron Green

• ​Loses first Test inside three days by 10 wickets

Sa’adi Thawfeeq reporting from Galle  

Sri Lanka batsmen gave an exhibition of how not to play spin when they collapsed in a heap to lose the first Warne-Muralitharan trophy Test by 10 wickets inside three days at the Galle International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

It was poor batting against a bowling attack that gave nothing away on a dry turning surface. 

Sri Lanka made a perfect start to the day wrapping up the Australian first innings in the first two overs with Asitha Fernando using the reverse swing to good effect to pick up the wickets of Pat Cummins for 26 and Mitchell Swepson for one – both bowled. Australia resuming at 313-8 were all out for 321, giving them a first innings lead of 109. 

After that it was a continuous stream of batsmen making their way to the middle and returning to the pavilion as the Australian spinners wreaked havoc capturing all ten wickets as Sri Lanka crumbled for 113 in their second innings, to be bowled out for their second lowest total at this venue. Sri Lanka in fact were dismissed in less than two hours in the extended morning session the innings lasting just 22.5 overs.

Nathan Lyon, the main spinner in the Australian line-up added a further four wickets to the five he had taken in the first innings to finish with a match bag of nine for 121, and Swepson took two more for match figures of five for 89. But the surprise package was part-time spinner Travis Head who was declared fit only on the morning of the test after suffering a hamstring injury. 

Having gone wicketless in his first 26 Tests Head simply snuffed out whatever resistance that Sri Lanka could have put up by striking two massive blows in his first over. He bowled Dinesh Chandimal with a ripping delivery that spun from outside the off stump to beat the batsman’s defensive push leaving him dumbfounded, and three balls later trapped Dhananjaya de Silva lbw, the decision going in favour of Australia after they had reviewed it.

With Head turning on the screws from one end and Lyon proving to be unplayable the Lankan innings came to a swift end. Lyon accounted for Ramesh Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella, and Head finished the Sri Lankan innings in style with the wickets of Jeffrey Vandersay and Lasith Embuldeniya for career best figures of 4 for 10 in Test and first-class cricket.

The Lankan batters tried to hit their way out by employing the sweep and the reverse sweep but with disastrous results as the Australian spinners proved to be pretty consistent with their lines and lengths in comparison to the home side trundlers. Left with formality of scoring five runs for victory to go one-up in the two-Test series, David Warner hit a four and followed it up with a six off Ramesh Mendis for Australia to finish the Test off on a high note.

Cameron Green was made the Player of the Match for his exceptional innings of 77 that gave Australia the crucial first innings lead from which they were able to convert it into a win.

The second Test commences on 8 July at the same venue.