A brilliant end to a brilliant day for Australia, with a double century to Usman Khawaja, a debut ton for Josh Inglis, a record score for Australia, and finally some wicket for the well-rested bowling attack.
The only silver lining here for Sri Lanka is the presence of 26-year-old superstar Kamindu Mendis at the crease, but dragging his team back from this position may even be too much for his mighty powers.
We’ll be back tomorrow to blog every ball, so please join us then!
This sort of rain settled in yesterday, and it looks set to do the same again today.
Australia will be thrilled with its performance today, scoring 324 runs for the loss of four wickets and this evening taking 3-44 in just 15 overs.
You can’t ask for much more than that on the second day of a tour of Sri Lanka.
He’s around the wicket to Chandimal. How long until Chandimal tries to sweep?
There he goes, with the slog sweep, but he just chunks an edge away behind square leg.
A maiden to start for Murphy.
Can the veteran drink up some of Kamindu’s energy?
A little skip down and drive wide of mid-off earns Chandimal a single.
Kamindu is opening the face of the bat and playing with soft hands with the spin outside off.
A straighter, quicker one almost sneaks through! Just an inside edge away behind square leg. Clever bowling by Lyon.
BOOM! Kamindu Mendis dances down and dispatches Matt Kuhnemann into the crowd behind mid-wicket. It was an absolute moon ball, but he got plenty of it. He immediately looks better taking the attack to Australia than the rest of the line-up.
A bit of width and Kamindu cuts hard through cover for two more.
Four more. Short and down leg, just helped around the corner by Kamindu.
A big LBW shout is denied. It’s clearly outside off, but the Aussies are claiming Dinesh Chandimal didn’t play a shot. The umpire says it was a shot, even though the bat was clearly behind the pad. The ball was spinning too far anyway.
Chandimal is trying the sweep shot, but it’s not looking clean right now. Lyon is getting too much dip, turn and bounce.
He’s into his fourth over.
Kamindu Mendis is working off his pads but it’s looking a little awkward right now.
However, he’s at least busy out there, forcing Kuhnemann to make decisions instead of just waiting to get out.
Kuhnemann is bowling a lot down leg, and Kamindu has almost gloved it to the leg slip.
The young superstar, with over 1,100 runs in 11 Tests, is out in the middle on a rescue mission.
A bit of turn and bounce for Lyon finds Mathews’s inside edge, the ball deflects into his front pad and Travis Head moves brilliantly to his right, diving and taking a superb one-handed grab at short leg.
My co-blogger predicted Sri Lanka would be 3-30 at stumps. It’s 3-31 right now, but there’s time for it to get worse.
Angelo Mathews has ditched the helmet for a cap. I don’t think Mitchell Starc will be back for a while. We wait to see if beau Webster will bowl seam or spin.
There’s a big shout for LBW! The umpire says no, but Steve Smith reviews. Oh jeez, I think this is sliding down leg, but Alex Carey and Kuhnemann have convinced Smith to review.
Kuhnemann’s around the wicket to a right-hander. He’s pitched on leg, the ball’s skidded on with the arm, hit the batter outside leg and, obviously, missing leg stump. Bizarre review.
A couple of singles for Chandimal and Mathews to round out the over.
He’s hit the stumps! But the bails stay lodged!!
Oh, it’s popped out of the groove but landed back on top of the stumps after Mathews drops the ball at his feet and it trickles between his legs. No way.
Go buy a lottery ticket, Angelo.
A maiden that could have so easily been a wicket-maiden.
He’s bowling cross-seam deliveries from over the wicket to the right-handers.
CHANDIMAL IS DROPPED! He flashes hard outside off and the ball goes like a rocket to Nathan McSweeney at gully. He jumps and gets both hands to it above his head, but can only parry it away and this time doesn’t regather the rebound.
That would’ve stung. Cam Green would’ve caught it. Or maybe Beau Webster, but he’s in at first slip. Is Khawaja off the ground?
He’s all ready to go, and he pulls out of his action as his front foot lands.
Lyon has Steve Smith at slip, Beau Webster at leg slip, and Travis Head at short leg.
Four. Almost to the big hands of Beau Webster, but Angelo Mathews helps himself to a boundary instead, worked off his thigh.
Mathews is working across and back in the crease, dropping to off side for a single.
FOUR! A beautiful cover drive from Dinesh Chandimal gets him a boundary, but Starc won’t mind seeing him throwing the hands at it that far away from his body.
Sub fielder Nathan McSweeney is on the field at gully and is straight in the action with a sharp grab to send Karunaratne packing for 7.
He rose with the ball outside off and tried to punch through the off side, but it got big on him and he could only edge to gully, where McSweeney parried the ball up and composed himself to catch the rebound as he wheeled around.
Asitha Fernando never looked likely. Can Mitchell Starc make it happen?
Karunaratne gets a ball on his pads and turns a single to the leg side.
Dinesh Chandimal takes a single off his toes to get off the mark. A couple of former captains out there now.
FOUR! Karunaratne gets a juicy full toss from Kuhnemann and smacks it down the ground for a boundary.
Based on Kuhnemann’s first effort, I don’t think there will be a lot of pace bowled in this innings.
Starc fires in at the pads of Dimuth Karunaratne and finds them. He’s interested for half a second, but it’s going down leg.
Karunaratne finds a single to get off the mark past mid-off.
