Pace Wins The Day

Mahela Jayawardene

Despite a heroic stand of 142 for the 6th wicket, Sri Lanka lost the 1st Test against Australia at Galle. The longer Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Matthews resisted, the more certain it became that once they were broken, the house of cards would crumble soon after.

During the morning, Jayawardene in particular, batted with great skill on a deck that was displaying two heights and varying pace, although no longer offering tricks for the spin of Nathan Lyon. His day in the sun was the second day but today it was the great line and pace of Ryan Harris that held sway and the clever changes of pace of Shane Watson. The rest bowled well but it was these two who were the go to men for Michael Clarke. Regardless, these batsmen did the job better than their team mates and by lunch, centuries loomed for both but so did the new ball.

After lunch, Jayawardene completed a brilliant hundred full of the most intense concentration and a liberal sprinkling of shots he made up on the spot, enhancing his reputation as a superb improviser. He continued to play his shots late and with his head well forward over the ball in a display that should be text book compulsory for any junior cricketer who fancies himself a batsman to be. Matthews was now carving shots with more authority, although in complete contrast to his more senior partner, he often flayed balls with perfect timing from a bat well wide of his footwork.

Harris after removing
Jayawardene

It was Harris who fittingly broke the deadlock, jagging the new ball back at Jayawardene more than he expected and catching the inside edge before hitting middle stump. From there, it was a quick tumble of wickets to the end. Randiv collected the fourth duck of the innings when Johnson bowled short and drawn to it, was unable to prevent the shoulder of the bat steering it to Clarke at second slip. Herath played selfishly with his team mate Matthews in the nineties and was out taking one wild swing too many at Harris, giving the big man a five wicket haul. 

Yesterday, Watson removed Kumar Sangakkara with a brutish ball which leaped at one of the worlds most accomplished batsmen and made him look ill prepared.Taking over from Harris, he fooled Matthews with a clever change of pace which the batsman tried to launch into the stand behind the bowler but was through his shot too quickly and the ball found its guided mark destroying Matthews castle and his hopes of a maiden Test century. Lyon finished it with the only wicket to fall to slow bowlers in the Sri Lankan second innings and Australia had victory by 125 runs.

This was a very good win for the Australians but don't believe the press that says the pitch was unplayable. It was at its best on the first day when Michael Hussey made the most of a lucky start to save the Australian innings after Ponting had looked very good earlier. There after it was difficult but by the third and fourth days, it was more dead than dangerous and the Australian bowled cleverly to gain ten second innings wickets. The real story of this match was the poor batting of the Sri Lankans. Admittedly, they faced the worst of the batting conditions on Day 2 but on a home pitch, they had the skills to survive and then mount a resistance but never looked like recovering after Watson put the skids under their middle order. Clarke for Australia and Jayawardene and Matthews for the Sri Lankans showed the technique required to succeed in 3rd and 4th innings on the sub continent.

Watson removes Matthews

The Australians, despite the success of Lyon - who in reality cleaned out the tail in his debut pfeiffer - were best served by the faster men, especially Harris. However, the smartest bowler on view and the one who changed the course of this match was Watson. Strangely, Hussey got MOM honours when Clarke, Jayawardene and even Matthews played better innings in sterner conditions.

The best moment of the day came when Mitchell Johnson had his prissy hard man feathers ruffled by Angelo Matthews. The batsmen had played an edge uppishly through gully for four and then smashed a pull shot to the mid wicket boundary the following ball. This follows an over yesterday in which Matthews three times sent Johnson deliveries to the boundary. Johnson snarled down the wicket at Matthews, looking to kill him on the spot with a glare. After joining gazes, Matthews just smiled, bringing forth a torrent in response from painted lady . When Johnson had finished, Matthews laughed and turned away.

They may have lost the match but the Sri Lankans won all clinches.

Big plaudits for Clarke who handled his job with his own style and manner but lead his team as well as the Australian public would demand from their skipper.