Danielle Scott, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons
I should make it clear upfront that I am taking legal action against the Australian Test Cricket team for finishing a game that I could have spent another 2 and half days watching. Not to mention my loss of income from coverage of the rest of the game. I mean you can only imagine how much money this site turns over in a day. Actually you can stop imagining that. Regardless, what a wild ride those two and a half days of cricket played were. Australia literally smoked Sri Lanka with their own pipe (taking me back to my university days). The big worry coming into this series was around how well the Australian’s could deal with spin on turning pitches. As it turns out the sandal was truly on the host’s foot.
Day 3 started off perfectly for the Sri Lankans, with Asitha Fernando delivering text book yorkers to quickly remove the final bones of the Australian tail. The tourists readied to bowl at a lead of 109, which on this pitch probably represented more than its numerical value suggested. Still, the Sri Lankans looked positive and early on it felt like there may be a little kick in this game yet. That was until the 5th over when Lyon pulled the first wooden block from the Jenga tower and sent Karunaratne back to the sheds. Swepson joined the fun and less time than it takes to write a Kings of Leon lyric the pair had taken out the top 4 within 12 overs. Let’s keep going you would think, but not Pat Cummins, who had the magical foresight to bring on Travis Head, even before Cummins had bowled a single delivery. Before you could say “Pat, is this the crack talking?”, Head was turning the bowl a mile, completely befuddling the Sri Lankan batsmen and was about to go from 0 test wickets to his first 4 in one innings (and for only 10 runs mind you). His effort to polish up the stumps of Chandimal was one for the replays with it’s almost right angle turn. It’ll be his personal ball of the century and one that his grandkids will unfortunately hear of over and over as they ask “what was this thing you call cricket granddad?”.
Before you knew it Sri Lanka were all out for 113, leaving Australia a handful of runs. Warner neatly polished them off with a boundary and a maximum. Ussie says thanks by the way Davey. This was an absolute trouncing and Australia’s second fastest Test win since 1946. I’m hoping Sri Lanka will bring the fire for the 2nd and final test but I have to admit that it’s exciting to see Australia dominate in Asia. Brilliant captaincy from Pat Cummins, near perfect bowling from Nathan Lyon, good signs from Swepson and player of the match performance with the bat from Cameron Green. Noice!
