A recap of the thrilling Sri Lanka-Australia test series
Sri Lanka 3 - Australia 0. Even though every man and his dog know that the current Australian team are awful against spin, not many of the said men (or dogs) would have seen such a comprehensive thrashing coming in the recently concluded Test series!
Let's look back at the 3 Tests before the limited-overs leg of this tour starts.
Pre-Series and the Squads:
Sri Lanka, who were just back from a depressing tour of England (lost 2 Tests comprehensively and drew 1), had doubts surrounding pretty much the entire batting order.
The openers, Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva, were inconsistent and with Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis and Dhananjaya de Silva very inexperienced (although all 3 have great potential), the entire batting seemed heavily reliant on the captain Angelo Mathews and vice-captain Dinesh Chandimal.
To make things worse, their bowlers were dropping down injured faster than pins in a bowling alley.
Dushmanta Chameera and Dhammika Prasad were out for the series, as was the young leg-spinner, Jeffrey Vandersay. Suranga Lakmal (later to return for the last Test), and Shaminda Eranga had been banned for an illegal action. Nuwan Pradeep was the only senior pacer left at that point, along with the spinners – Rangana Herath, off-spinner Dilruwan Perera and the uncapped chinaman bowler Lakshan Sandakan
Sri Lanka were forced to play 3 spinners and 1 pace bowler – Pradeep – in the first Test.
The Australians, on the other hand, seemed to have a much more settled team, with 2 world-class batsmen in Smith and Warner, and the rest of the batsmen in form. Khawaja was piling up centuries, Voges was averaging more than anyone except Bradman, and even reserve batsman Shaun Marsh had been excellent when given the chance. The bowling, too, had a settled look to it, with regulars Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon joined by all-rounder Mitchell Marsh and Stephen O’Keefe.
Above all, the fact that the team had won 6 and drawn 2 of the previous 8 Tests against New Zealand and West Indies meant that they were high on confidence even if many of the batsmen hadn’t played Test Cricket on the subcontinent. Lyon, inexplicably, had a worse record in spin-friendly conditions than in Australia.
So all things considered, there really wasn’t anything to suggest that Sri Lanka would dominate as they did, even if we take into account how rarely teams win Test series away from home these days!
So, how did Australia get a 3-0 thrashing?
1st Test at Pallekele, Kandy: Sri Lanka won by 106 Runs
Dilruwan Perera was disappointing in the first Test at Kandy, causing Mathews to bowl the part-time spin of Dhananjaya de Silva ahead of him at one point. But Herath, reliable as ever, took 9 wickets, and Sandakan, the chinaman bowler with a deceptive googly, caused havoc with his 7 wickets – the Australians had as much idea about which way the ball was turning as Maria Sharapova had about who Sachin Tendulkar was!
But despite Herath and Sandakan’s wickets, the hero of this match was undoubtedly young Kusal Mendis! He had had a few 40s and 50s in his short Test career already, but his 2nd innings 176 was a ‘coming of age’ innings – the first hundred that every international batsman needs. And what a majestic innings!
In a match where most batsmen struggled and the next highest score was 55 by Steven Smith, Mendis's big century at 21 years old was proof of genuine temperament and skill, made all the more impressive by the fact that Sri Lanka trailed by 84 after the 1st innings, having been shot out for 117 in 34.2 overs on the first day.
The Australians actually bowled well throughout the match, O’Keefe seemed a really good selection, and the pacers were impressive. But the batting looked all at sea, with only Voges (in the 1st innings) and Smith (in the 2nd innings) showing any defiance.