Polished Australia compound Sri Lanka’s misery
Sunday, 11 November 2007
Australia's new era continued to look much like their old one as they dominated mercilessly at the Gabba for a third day, forcing Sri Lanka to follow-on a massive 340 runs behind. The visitors then lost both openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu to complete a miserable day, reports Cricinfo.
Ricky Ponting has been prone to batting again to give his bowlers a rest, so his decision to make Sri Lanka follow on may have raised a few eyebrows, but it was not entirely unexpected. Sri Lanka, with the odd exception, haven't batted well all tour and they were well behind when their first innings closed.
It was an innings notable for Mitchell Johnson's first Test wicket and Brett Lee's 4 for 26, while Stuart MacGill nudged closer to 200 Test victims after eventually breaking through in the final session following some excellent, but hitherto unrewarded, toil. He will begin day four needing one more for the milestone.
Wickets, though, didn't come as easily as the scoreline may suggest. The bowlers certainly found it hard work on a pitch that remained good for batting, but once they had prised out the big guns by tea, the tail folded shortly after the break.
Stuart Clark opened the day by finding the captain Mahela Jayawardene's edge in the third over, but the biggest cheers were reserved for Johnson's first Test wicket, that of Thilan Samaraweera. Johnson may have had to wait a year to make his debut, after being 12th man for the entire Ashes series, but he needed only eight overs to open his account, angling across the batsman with good pace and bounce, inducing a prod and sparking celebrations.
Scorecard:
Australia 1st innings: 551
Sri Lanka 1st innings: 211
Sri Lanka 2nd innings: 80
Toss: Sri Lanka, who chose to field first
Ricky Ponting has been prone to batting again to give his bowlers a rest, so his decision to make Sri Lanka follow on may have raised a few eyebrows, but it was not entirely unexpected. Sri Lanka, with the odd exception, haven't batted well all tour and they were well behind when their first innings closed.
It was an innings notable for Mitchell Johnson's first Test wicket and Brett Lee's 4 for 26, while Stuart MacGill nudged closer to 200 Test victims after eventually breaking through in the final session following some excellent, but hitherto unrewarded, toil. He will begin day four needing one more for the milestone.
Wickets, though, didn't come as easily as the scoreline may suggest. The bowlers certainly found it hard work on a pitch that remained good for batting, but once they had prised out the big guns by tea, the tail folded shortly after the break.
Stuart Clark opened the day by finding the captain Mahela Jayawardene's edge in the third over, but the biggest cheers were reserved for Johnson's first Test wicket, that of Thilan Samaraweera. Johnson may have had to wait a year to make his debut, after being 12th man for the entire Ashes series, but he needed only eight overs to open his account, angling across the batsman with good pace and bounce, inducing a prod and sparking celebrations.
Scorecard:
Australia 1st innings: 551
Sri Lanka 1st innings: 211
Sri Lanka 2nd innings: 80
Toss: Sri Lanka, who chose to field first