Wed, 31 Aug 2011 - Sri Lanka vs Australia, Australia Tour of Sri Lanka 2011, 1st Test - Bulletin

125-run win gives Australia 1-0 lead

Overcoming dogged resistance from Mahela Jayewardene and Angelo Mathews, Australia completed a 125-run win in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle. Both the overnight batsmen foiled Australia throughout the rain affected first session but the second new ball proved to hot to handle for the rest of the Lankan batsmen as Ryan Harris’ five-for brought an early end to the proceedings.

Thanks to impressive fighting stand between Mahela and Mathews, hopes of a miracle win were revived briefly, however, the former fell shortly after completing his 29th Test century. The dusty pitch and a brand new cherry made life difficult for the remaining batsmen and Sri Lanka were all-out midway through the second session for 253 falling short of the 379 run target by 125.

Early morning rain forced an extended morning session, the home team added another 67 runs to the overnight total of 120 without losing a wicket. Mahela continued on his masterful exhibition of batting in the trying conditions going into lunch unbeaten ten short of a well deserved ton. His partner Mathews unlike yesterday looked more compact crossing his half-century.

With Australia looking for the remaining five wickets at start of the day, Mahela and Mathews responded well to the challenge mixing solid defensive technique with some quality stroke-making. Australian seamers and spinners were steady in their approach maintaining tight lines and lengths and hardly giving the batsmen anything to work away. Much to the credit of the batsmen, everything thrown up to them was handled with aplomb and lot of maturity.

Despite pitch having some spin and bounce for spinners, Nathan Lyon and Michael Clarke couldn’t pose alarming threat to Mahela and Mathews. Not that the pitch was playing any better, but positive approach from the two ensured that runs came at a fair rate. As the partnership between the two grew, so did the frustration levels of the Australian bowlers.

However, the visitors had something to play for after the Lunch, the second new ball. Meanwhile, Mahela reached the fighting century with a boundary behind point and whole of Lankan dressing room appreciated the knock with a standing ovation. He along with Mathews survived six testing overs of the brand new cherry before the nippy Harris got one to cut in sharply that crashed into the leg stump off an inside edge. This brought to end the fantastic 142-run partnership with Mahela departing for a 231-ball 105.

Mathews though continued aggressively from one end, the tail did not have answers to the in-form Australian pacers. Randiv could only fend a rip-cage bound delivery from Johnson to Clarke, Herath tried to hit one too many lofted strokes and holed out to give Harris his second five-for in Tests.

With eight down, Mathews had reached 93 and looked set for a ton only if the last two would survive. Mathew added two more to his score before targeting Watson for a big hit, instead lost his off-stump. In the next over, Lyon got his first wicket of the innings to have the last man caught and Australia achieved their first victory in the sub-continent after 2006.

This was also a special occasion for the current skipper as well as his predecessor, Michael Clarke got his first win as captain and Ricky Ponting became the first player in the history of cricket to feature in hundred test wins.

Day 3: Bulletin on next page