SL v AUS, 1st Test, Day 4 Review: Australia face tough spin challenge

Published - 29 Jul 2016, 17:50 IST | Updated - 29 Jul 2016, 17:50 IST

3 Min Read

Australia in their pursuit to chasing 268 runs ended with 83/3 on the day 4 of the first Test at Pallekele. The match looks evenly poised after bad light forced a premature end to the day’s play and give Australia a bit of relief and time to think about plans to counter the Sri Lankan spin duo of Rangana Herath and P Sandakan. Just like in the past three days, rains played spoilsport today as well. The play was stopped due to the downpour just after 7.3 overs into the morning session. Later, it also forced an early lunch.

Young gun Kusal Mendis, who resumed at 169, could add only seven runs to his tally after Mitchell Starc got rid of him. But, the Australians didn’t have an easy time thereafter as the tail-enders began playing stubbornly and added 63 runs combined for the last three wickets. Rangana Herath was the key man today morning with the bat and delighted everyone during his vital knock of 35 runs batting at No.9.

After the departure of Mendis, Herath formed three small yet useful partnerships to extend Sri Lanka’s lead and frustrate the Australians. He first contributed 24 runs for the 8th wicket with Dilruwan Perera (12 runs). His spin bowling partner Sandakan‘s stay was short lived after he fell in an unusual manner to Starc. Even after getting the opposition nine down, the Australian bowlers had to wait for the innings to end as Herath went on to add another 30 runs for the 10th wicket with Nuwan Pradeep.

This handy contribution from the tail-enders led by Rangana Herath propelled the Lankan lead to 267 runs.

The hosts pushed out the visitors further out of the game after David Warner and Usman Khawaja and Joe Burns fell cheaply after the start of the chase. The first to go was Warner. The left-hander behaved quite irresponsibily and played an unnecessary shot coming down the pitch in the very first over off the Herath’s bowling. The ball delivered with a flatter trajectory kept straight and beat Warner’s bat to clean him up.

Usman Khawaja came up next and joined Burn in the middle. It seemed Khawaja had made up mind about playing with a counter-attacking approach and began scoring runs at a quick rate while Burns played patiently from the other end.

Unfortunately, Khawaja’s tactic didn’t work as Dilruwan Perera trapped him leg before just after scoring 18 in just 22 balls including 3 boundaries. Skipper Smith and Burns also could not build a huge stand as Sri Lanka shortly snapped another wicket in the form of Burns. The right-hander was completely bamboozled by a giant turning ball which came from Lakshan Sandakan. Australia lost no further wickets as only 9.3 overs of play was possible later on before umpires called stumps due to bad light.