13/08Result
3rd Test, Australia tour of Sri Lanka at Colombo, Aug 13-17 2016
Sri Lanka won by 163 runs
Player of the Match
Rangana Herath
Rangana HerathSri Lanka
13/08Result
3rd Test, Australia tour of Sri Lanka at Colombo, Aug 13-17 2016
Sri Lanka won by 163 runs
Player of the Match
Rangana Herath
Rangana HerathSri Lanka

Mathews has declared. Sri Lanka have set Australia 324 to win in a minimum of 83 overs. That's a lot of balls for Rangana Herath, presumably. The visitors will hope that's not enough for the likes of Warner, Smith, Marsh and a few others in that top order. A good start will settle the nerves and give them belief, and strange things happen when a team believes they can pull off the impossible. Double-hundreds, quadruple-hundreds... Though that's asking for too much on a day five pitch in Colombo, where the rough virtually stretches from one end to the other. It's going to be a fun morning, so stick around.

Rupesh: "It is virtual holiday for srilankan fast bowlers. Just relax guys."

Saif: "What a lovely summer this for Test Cricket lovers, a fantastic hard fought emotional series in England, a young captain achieving great feet in the Carribbean and the icing on the cake is this one with a sporting declaration from Mathews. There were days recently whee you could watch top quality Test cricket for as many as 16 hours at stretch, wow!"

99.3
1
Starc to de Silva, 1 run, full toss, pushed to long-off
99.3
5nb
Starc to de Silva, 5 no balls, beamer at 138 kph, called no-ball. Starc looks for the hooping yorker on middle and off, but it goes awfully wrong. De Silva does well to sway away from the ball, keeping his eyes on it. Starc's been warned for that, and while going back to the mark, he checks those pesky footholes again

Barring Smith at cover, everyone else is on the boundary

99.2
0
Starc to de Silva, no run, yorker on off stump, de Silva keeps it out and is alert enough to protect himself from it rolling back onto the stumps
99.1
2
Starc to de Silva, 2 runs, gets the two he wants! It was a fuller ball on off stump, tapped into the covers, Starc tries to cut him off at the pass by running after the ball himself, but de Silva slides on his knees to safety before the throw comes in to his end.

Ralph : "please comment on the game and stop giving your biased parochial opinions please" Such sensitive people have suddenly cropped up on comms

END OF OVER:
99 | 11 Runs | SL: 339/8

  • Dhananjaya de Silva62 (70b)
  • Suranga Lakmal4 (18b)
  • Josh Hazlewood14-2-33-0
  • Mitchell Starc19-4-64-2

Mal: "I think it's a bit unfair to say the Australians are known for dirty tricks. We're not strangers to them, but we're on the receiving end more often than not. I suspect Stuart Broad is the worst offender in recent history. Regardless, it should not be tolerated, and the umpires need to step up."

98.6
1
Hazlewood to de Silva, 1 run, goes short and de Silva hooks it down to long leg to retain strike. No signal from Mathews in the dressing room even as the camera implores him
98.5
0
Hazlewood to de Silva, no run, good length ball on fourth stump, he defends it and then grins like a kid missing out on a prize. Punches his bat in disappointment. Declaration imminent

JohnB: "Arun, at least one famous game when Steve Waugh's team should have had the brains to play defensively"

98.4
4
Hazlewood to de Silva, FOUR, looks to knock his block off with a short ball, de Silva stands still and pummels it through midwicket. Plenty of men in the deep for him, but he keeps picking the gap.

Bal Dev: "300 plus and series in pocket, not declaring! Terrible by SL and A. Matthews!" Good news though, he is back in his whites.

98.3
0
Hazlewood to de Silva, no run, waits on the shortish delivery outside off and tries a late dab. Doesn't get it past slip
98.2
4
Hazlewood to de Silva, FOUR, belted down the ground! There's nothing for the fast bowler when he pitches it up, and de Silva just smashes it through the line of the ball, not worrying about the man at deepish mid-off.

An impromptu drinks break for Australia now. Doesn't last long though

98.1
2
Hazlewood to de Silva, 2 runs, yawning gap at midwicket, de Silva exploits it with soft hands and steals a couple of runs and the strike. Voges runs in from the boundary and hits direct at the non-strikers' end. Lakmal dives to try and save himself, but his bat is sideways and it kicks up on impact with the ground. Could have been out, but his hands were down on the ground by the time the stumps were broken

k H Padaki: "Umpires on Field should Object to this Only one ball left in the Over and hardly he has come to the ground 2 overs before...Captain and Team to be fined for these tricks... which this team is known for...."

END OF OVER:
98 | 9 Runs | SL: 328/8

  • Suranga Lakmal4 (18b)
  • Dhananjaya de Silva51 (64b)
  • Mitchell Starc19-4-64-2
  • Josh Hazlewood13-2-22-0

Arun: "Australia already in defensive mindset by trying to delay things. Not something that Steve Waugh's men would have done" Anything to avoid a whitewash, mate.

97.6
0
Starc to Lakmal, no run, new pair of boots, back over the wicket, short ball hits the batsman on the elbow as he pulls. All is well in Starc's world

Sneaky fellows, doing everything they can to delay proceedings. But Sri Lanka can ratchet the over-rate back up with their three spinners! Might ultimately be futile, but they have to do something. Then again, we're nearing half-an-hour since start of the day and we haven't had three overs.

97.5
4
Starc to Lakmal, FOUR, su-weet from Lakmal! He doesn't move his feet often, but that becomes an asset this time with Starc overpitching in line with the stumps. On-drive of some quality. And now Starc is down on his knees, asking for a pair of new boots.

Angelo Mathews is still in his training clothes, talking to the coach Graham Ford. Lakshan Sandakan with his pads on. Eight bowlers used by Australia. Seems only Shaun Marsh, Peter Nevill and David Warner have not had a trundle

97.4
1
Starc to de Silva, 1 run, eased through the covers and he takes the single now to push the lead up to 300
97.3
4b
Starc to de Silva, 4 byes, shifts around the stumps and delivers a horrid ball, too far down leg for the keeper to reach, too quick for him too.

SamSL: "Hello Alagappan, are your fingers OK? too many typos in 10 balls bowled today. Even Kaushal Silva bats well with a split webbing." Oh, it's only going to get worse as the day goes on. So buckle in

97.2
0
Starc to de Silva, no run, good bowling. Hits a fuller length, looking for the outside edge. De Silva knows Starc's trick and doesn't fall for it
97.1
0
Starc to de Silva, no run, clipped to long leg as Starc bowls a 143 kph delivery on the pads over the wicket

Sixteen minutes for two overs, it appears. Australia doing well to eat into the time left in this Test

END OF OVER:
97 | 6 Runs | SL: 319/8

  • Suranga Lakmal0 (16b)
  • Dhananjaya de Silva50 (60b)
  • Josh Hazlewood13-2-22-0
  • Mitchell Starc18-4-59-2

uniyal: "Much as Warner is capable of dictating the course of play over the remaining sessions, I wonder why guys forget there is another guy at the park who's best at his trade than all the 21 of the rest in theirs--and that guy is Rangana Herath!" He clearly is key, but you'd also hope he has support. Even Superman needed a Justice League

96.6
0
Hazlewood to Lakmal, no run, short delivery, outside off, Lakmal avoids it.
96.5
0
Hazlewood to Lakmal, no run, hit on the pads, but the duck back into the batsman was tinged with a little too much bounce. Not even an appeal
96.4
0
Hazlewood to Lakmal, no run, pokes at a good length ball and gets an outside edge to gully
96.3
1
Hazlewood to de Silva, 1 run, nudged off his hips and he has a fifty to go with the hundred he made in the first innings. What a Test he is having, and he's only 24 years old, very new to this form of cricket. Rose up with the shortish ball and effortlessly worked it away
96.2
4
Hazlewood to de Silva, FOUR, dances down the track and bangs it over the annoyed fast bowler. You little beauty! Moves to 49 with a stroke that will reduce a fast bowler to pure anger
96.2
1w
Hazlewood to de Silva, 1 wide, banged in short - incredibly short - so much that the ump calls it a wide and he stars back at Ravi as if he couldn't believe it. Clearly over the head though, with de Silva leaving the ball standing fully upright. Good call from the square leg ump Gaffaney
96.1
0
Hazlewood to de Silva, no run, good length ball, apparently at 96 kph, steered towards the slips. More delay from the Aussies as Hazlewood stares daggers at the landing area and rakes on it with his boot. Trouble landing that front foot to a fast bowler might lead to ankle problems, so perhaps he is justified. The groundsman levels out the surrounding area to make the issue with that hole go away

Josh Hazlewood at the other end. It appears the first over too six minutes

END OF OVER:
96 | 1 Run | SL: 313/8

  • Suranga Lakmal0 (13b)
  • Dhananjaya de Silva45 (57b)
  • Mitchell Starc18-4-59-2
  • Steven Smith2-0-13-0
95.6
0
Starc to Lakmal, no run, stuck on the crease, as you would expect when staring down a concentrated piece of leather comes at you at 147 kph. I'd have gone white and leapt out of my shoes, cartoon-style. But Lakmal is a better batsman. Flicks it away

Match Coverage

All Match News

Hat-trick of whitewashes

3

Consecutive Test series for Australia in Asia where have been whitewashed - 4-0 by India 2012-13, 2-0 by Pakistan 2014-15 and 3-0 by Sri Lanka 2016.

One each

6

No. of 10-wicket hauls for Herath in Tests - each one has come against different teams, including Aus. Only Muralitharan has taken such hauls against more teams (9).

Middle order collapse

22

Runs added by Australia's No. 3, 4, 5 & 6 combined in this innings - their lowest in a Test inns vs SL. Previous lowest: 25 in Kandy 2004-05.

Herath's highest

23

Previous most wickets by Herath in a Test series - against Pakistan in 2014 (in 2 matches). Mitchell Marsh was his 24th wicket of this series.

Solid start at last

56

Aggregate of the 11 opening partnerships of this series, before this inns. Warner-Marsh have added more than that in this last opening stand of the series.

Out of Australia's hands?

307

Highest successful chase by Australia in Tests in Asia, against B'desh in Fatullah in 2006. The highest successful chase at SSC by any visiting team is 131.

The first

0

No. of SL players who scored a century and fifty in the same Test batting at No. 7 or lower, before this. Dhananjaya de Silva becomes the first SL player to do so.

Sixth-wicket show

298

Previous most runs by a team's sixth-wicket in a Test vs Australia, by India at Wankhede 1986-87. Sri Lanka's 6th wicket has added over 300 runs in this match.

Resistance from bottom

8

No. of 50+ partnerships for wickets 5 and lower in this series for Sri Lanka - joint-most for them in any series. Their first 4 wickets have had only 2 50+ stands.

Silva finds form

18

Runs scored by Kaushal Silva in the first 5 inns of this series. He opened in all those inns, but came at No. 3 in this inns and has made a fifty.

Starc's series

23

Previous most wickets by a visiting fast bowler in a Test series in Sri Lanka, by Richard Hadlee in 1983-84. Starc dismissed Mendis as his 24th wkt of this series.

Decent start at last

12

Average score at which Sri Lanka lost their second-wicket in this series, before this second inns. Their second wicket fell at 44 in this inns.