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Kusal Mendis was unbeaten on 85 © AFP
The second morning of the final Test between Sri Lanka and Australia witnessed an even session in Galle. Resuming at 229/9, Sri Lanka were able to muster 28 more runs with Kusal Mendis (85*) doing the heavy-lifting along with last man Lahiru Kumara who did his part by hanging around. The former deserved a century for his dogged knock but in the end, Kumara was nipped out by Matthew Kuhneman for the left-arm spinner's third wicket of the innings as Sri Lanka folded for 257.
Travis Head once again got off to a flier, like he did in the first Test, but his 22-ball 21 was cut short as Sri Lanka's spinners found their mojo quite early with the new ball. Kumara's two overs were all the pace that the Aussies got before the assortment of spin were thrown at them from the hosts. Head's adventurous methods at the crease ultimately brought about his downfall as he stepped out to a loopy off break, only to nick it to first slip after having failed to get to the pitch of it.
Marnus Labuschagne's lean patch continued as he was trapped LBW by Prabath Jayasuriya's fizzing arm-ball. It wasn't given on-field but Jayasuriya egged Dhananjaya de Silva on for the review and the spinner was proven right. At 37/2, Sri Lanka had the perfect start to make further inroads but the veteran duo of Usman Khawaja (34*) and Steve Smith (23*) got into the act once again as they put on an unbeaten 48-run stand to avoid further damage. The pair handled spin with aplomb and barely looked troubled at the crease.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 257 (Kusal Mendis 85*, Dinesh Chandimal 74; Mitchell Starc 3-37, Matthew Kuhnemann 3-63) lead Australia 85-2 (Usman Khawaja 34*; Nishan Peiris 1-20) by 172 runs.
The second morning of the final Test between Sri Lanka and Australia witnessed an even session in Galle. Resuming at 229/9, Sri Lanka were able to muster 28 more runs with Kusal Mendis (85*) doing the heavy-lifting along with last man Lahiru Kumara who did his part by hanging around. The former deserved a century for his dogged knock but in the end, Kumara was nipped out by Matthew Kuhneman for the left-arm spinner's third wicket of the innings as Sri Lanka folded for 257.
Travis Head once again got off to a flier, like he did in the first Test, but his 22-ball 21 was cut short as Sri Lanka's spinners found their mojo quite early with the new ball. Kumara's two overs were all the pace that the Aussies got before the assortment of spin were thrown at them from the hosts. Head's adventurous methods at the crease ultimately brought about his downfall as he stepped out to a loopy off break, only to nick it to first slip after having failed to get to the pitch of it.
Marnus Labuschagne's lean patch continued as he was trapped LBW by Prabath Jayasuriya's fizzing arm-ball. It wasn't given on-field but Jayasuriya egged Dhananjaya de Silva on for the review and the spinner was proven right. At 37/2, Sri Lanka had the perfect start to make further inroads but the veteran duo of Usman Khawaja (34*) and Steve Smith (23*) got into the act once again as they put on an unbeaten 48-run stand to avoid further damage. The pair handled spin with aplomb and barely looked troubled at the crease.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 257 (Kusal Mendis 85*, Dinesh Chandimal 74; Mitchell Starc 3-37, Matthew Kuhnemann 3-63) lead Australia 85-2 (Usman Khawaja 34*; Nishan Peiris 1-20) by 172 runs.