Sri Lanka Battered By Boxing Day

Sangakkara made a
classy 58

Australia has steered the Boxing Day Test very much in their favour after just one day's play, with a confident display against the aging Sri Lankans. Batting in the elongated last session and inspired by a Dave Warner cameo, they remain only six runs behind.

After making rapid inroads in the Sri Lankan top order with the dismissal of Karunaratne, Dilshan and the skipper Mahela Jayawardene, a wayward spell from Mitchell Johnson was utilised by Kumar Sangakkara in the second hour of the game and Sri Lanka had steadied at 3-79 by lunch. Jackson Bird took his first Test wicket, inducing Karunaratne to edge to Matt Wade but Johnson was gifted Dilshan's wicket when the former skipper took a wild slog across the line of a ball from Johnson which moved back to the top of his off stump. Jayawardene was hardly less culpable when he played away from his body to a ball from Peter Siddle well outside his off stump.

Wade ran 25 metres then dived
to catch Sangakkara

After lunch, the traffic ran in one direction, back to the pavilion, as the Australians took the remaining seven wickets to close out the innings. Sangakkara  was eight out after being the only batsman to look up to the challenge from an Australian attack that was no more than accurate. In the process of compiling another innings of silk, he passed ten thousand Test runs and as fast as the fastest. Like Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar, it took just 195 innings but his made the more elegantly.

Samaraweera and Mathews threw their wickets away in such a reckless manner that the lower order could not have been expected to behave with greater responsibility. Mike Hussey held a hot catch at second slip to remove Mathews but it was Wade's superbly judged running catch, taken in a dive 25 metres behind his usual keeping position, that was the highlight of the Australian effort.

Johnson was aggressive
but expensive with 4-63

Johnson reverted to the blunt side of his potency and every short ball was a threat. He bowled a lot of them in the second session. He reached 200 Test scalps with the rising ball Sangakkara could not control, captured at a worse than ordinary average beyond 30 but its how and not how many that makes you a great. His grunt serves a purpose but it has limitations docked by conditions and the quality of the opposition. Yesterday was one of his moments but in truth, if the pantheon of bowlers in Australian cricket history were chosen like a Saturday club side, Johnson would struggle to get a game in the 5ths. There are so many better bowlers than him.  Jackson Bird made an impressive, if overdue debut, moving the ball both ways in the air on excellent lines and lengths. Peter Siddle was just the tradesman that is expected of him these days and Nathan Lyon picked up a couple of freebies at the end of the innings.

Warner and Ed Cowan started with 95 in eighteen overs, with the former providing the impetus. Warner's 62 came from 46 balls and including one monster six over wide long on that he claimed in an interview near stumps, that he didn't get all of. In complete control, he made the second dumbest play of the day, watching Dammika Prassad get placed at a deep mid wicket and then dropping the very next ball into his lap even though he was one of only three men on the leg side. It was a century wasted.

The dumbest play came soon after, when Phil Hughes ran himself out. He was absolved of blame in Hobart when Warner executed himself, even though Hughes was fixated on the ball to the exclusion of anything else. Today, Cowan pushed a ball to the left of the right handed Dilshan at short cover, called loudly and set off for what was clearly a sharp but safe single. Hughes, whose eyes never left the ball, ignored the call, dallied, made no call himself and Cowan was past him before he had gone more than a few metres. There was little or no call from Hughes in the Hobart incident either.

Warner made a quick 62

Cowan, seemingly shaken, played a ball in the next over he would normally left and was caught in second slip while Prassad gave thanks to heaven or Spidercam or was pointing to spots the drycleaner had left on his shirt.

Michael Clarke and Shane Watson took Australia to 150 by the close but not before both were dropped: Clarke driving an inside edge from Herath to Dilshan at a short mid on and Watson again playing that lunging forward defence to Welegedara and being dropped by stand in keeper Sangakkara, diving to his right. Johnson had earlier in the day broken Prasanna Jayawardene's thumb by lifting a ball towards his throat and jamming it on the bat handle for Hughes to take the catch at third slip. Sangakkara, a wonderful fieldsman who had been his country's wicket keeper for the first half of his international career, was sloppy, failed to move his feet and dived instead, dropping the chance from Watson from the webbing on his outstretched right glove.

67 000 saw all their heroes in action, in a day where Australia was the dominant force on a day so iconic on the Australian sporting calendar, it is probably only just shaded by Melbourne Cup Day.