Sri Lanka made three changes to their playing eleven for the second test. To bench Jeffrey Vandersay, the leg spinner who also made 53 runs, the highest scorer of the second essay of the first Test, thereby going with two off spinners instead is blowing to state the least.

Sri Lanka tail enders are now push overs on the world stage. However, the inclusion of Vandersay and his contribution of 53 valuable runs in the second innings batting at number ten gave an hour indication of a light at the end of the tunnel to Sri Lankan wows of appaling tail end contribution, but the omition of Vandersay from the playing eleven is a unpredictable shell shock.

Winning the toss on a Galle pitch that, too, on day one against the visitors and crumbling to 229 for nine wickets after taking lunch on 87 for one wicket indicates Sri Lankan batters temptement against quality bowling in red ball cricket period.

Pathum Nissanka sadly looked rusty when Nathen Lyon bowled him round his legs , fair enough he had been in the rehabilitation bench for some time.

Karunaratne playing his last test made 36, but Nathen Lyon exposed his weakness against spin and had him beaten off a fuller length delivery with his feet going nowhere , and the rattle of his stumps playing on the back foot be rather forgotten than remembered.

With SriLanka on 93 for 2 wickets early in the second session, the parade started with Mathews ,Kamindu Mendis, and skipper DDS playing school boy strokes and the scorecard suddenly read 127 for 5 wickets SriLanka winning the toss and batting first in their own den. Appaling to state the least.

With the ball getting softer , the Australian bowlers started losing the grip and turn from the surface, but the much needed turning point came when Chandimal batting on 74 was brilliantly stumped by Alex Carey off Mathew Kuhnemann with Sri Lanka slumping to 150 for 6 wickets .

By far, it was only Chandimal who batted with responsibility. However, the softness of the ball helped Kusal Mendis and Ramesh Mendis to stich a partnership of 65 runs for the 7th wicket.

This indicates the turning point and the important scalp that Australia achieved with the dismissal of Dinesh Chandimal, because Kusal Mendis looked composed , hence SriLanka could have built a substantial partnership till close of play with the last two recognised batters in Chandimal and Kusal Mendis.

Credit must be given to Ramesh Mendis for hanging around with Kusal Mendis, but the introduction of the second new ball got the job done for Australia.

The parade commenced yet again . Sri Lanka lost 3 wickets for 9 runs Mitchell Starc unplayable with the new ball as the Sri Lankan tail enders lived to their reputation of only numbers and not scorers.

Kusal Mendis is unbeaten on 59 , and Lahiru Kumara has kept him company so far. Winning the toss and batting first with the score on 229 for 9 wickets is early signs that Australia is already getting the breath of an imminent white wash.

Starc 3 for 37, Lyon 3 for 78, and Khunemann 2 for 53 will enjoy a better dinner than the Sri Lankan batters who are searching for solutions in the dark

CHIEF SCORES

Sri Lanka 229/9 (90 Overs)

(Dinesh Chandimal 74, Kusal Mendis n.o. 59, Dimuth Karunaratne 36, Ramesh Mendis 28, Pathum Nissanka 11, Mitchell Starc 3/37, Nathan Lyon 3/78, Matthew Kuhnemann 2/58, Travis Head 1/31)