Sri Lanka suffer bigest test defeat in history at Galle in the Murali- Warne Test
We had a glorious day in Galle this morning with bright sunshine in comparison to the gloomy greetings players and spectators were greeted with yesterday.
Day 3, only 27 overs were bowled, but day 4 mother nature was kind enough to support Australia for the historic 9th Test win for Australia on Sri Lankan soil, which they richly deserve.
Sri Lanka resumed day 4 on 136 for 5 wickets with Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Mendis marching out this morning with a mindset to bat as long as possible.
Things don’t go to plan when you lack the ingredients named application in your approach, and that was proved within the first hour of play as Sri Lanka lost 5 wickets for 31 runs and was bowled out for 165.
Kusal Mendis was caught by Todd Murphy at fine leg after his attempted sweep off Mathew Kuhnemann went skybound due to mistimed execution.
Dinesh Chandimal was plumb Lbw for 72 after he missed a reverse sweep against Nathen Lyon . The Sri Lankan tail that has a virus of only being numbers and not contributors had no answer to the quality spin of Khunemann who took his second five for in Test Cricket, whilst Nathen Lyon celebrated a 3 for 57.
It was amazing to see so many helmets around the Sri Lankan tail enders, which must be addressed by the coaching staff sooner rather than later because in the international area and especially in modern-day cricket, the tail must wag period.
Forced to follow on, Sri Lanka lost the two openers, namely Karunaratne, for no score when he misread a Murphy arm ball and was bowled. Oshadi Fernando was also out for 6 simply, not getting bat to ball to a Mitchell Starc indipper, plumb in front , and adding salt to the wound by even referring to a DRS clarification to an obvious plumb out decision by the on field umpire.
6 runs for 2 wickets whilst following on was an early indication that the gate is open for the horse to bolt.
Sri Lanka took lunch on 75 for 3 wickets, Chandimal dismissed for the second time by Nathen Lyon in one session but this time for 31 runs , in his second essay , which means Sri Lanka lost 8 wickets for 106 in the first session on day 4. This proves the lack of application by the Sri Lankans in this test.
Sri Lankan batters got started but did not respect the value of their wickets which raised questions about commitment for their country. Mathews made 41 , Kamindu Mendis 32 , DDS 39 whilst Kusal Mendis 34 .
Experts analysed all their dismissals as poor shot selection due to a lack of application against quality spin in abundance and limited seam attack given the playing conditions.
Jeffrey Vandersay proved batting at number 9 that if the Sri Lankan top order were deciplined runs were easy to compile. Vandersay made his debut half-century in test cricket despite being Sri Lankan lower order batter.
Mathew Kehunamann match bag of 9 wickets for 153 runs , with Nathen Lyon with 7 wickets for 145 runs, proves the abundance of spin bowled by the visitors in their opponents backyard, and their batters were no good enough to negotiate quality spin.
Australia won the lung opener by an innings and 243 runs , this is their 9th test win in Sri Lanka .
They recorded their biggest win against Sri Lanka in their own backyard or their Lions Den , whilst Sri Lanka cricket are shell Schoked of a massive drubbing by the visitors.
Steve Smith records his 36th Test hundred and gets to a milestone of 10000 runs in test cricket.
Osman Khawaja scores his maiden double hundred the first Australian to do so in Sri Lankas own backyard.
The Aussies have plenty to cheer about over drinks and dinner this evening, whilst Sri Lanka will have to get their thinking cap on how to score more than 247 runs they made in their second innings being the highest runs they made again Australia in one innings in the own backyard whilst leaking 654 runs and scalping only 6 wickets.
Midnight oil for sure.