Mitchell Starc’s five-wicket haul helped Australia bowl Sri Lanka for 281 before David Warner got Australia off to a good start and get them 227 runs of the total before being dismissed in the first day of the second Test at Galle.
After winning the toss, Sri Lanka got off to the worst possible start as they lost a wicket off the first ball of the Test. It got worse as the other opener was dismissed cheaply as well. But Kusal Mendis and Kusal Perera led the revival and took them to lunch without any further loss.
Although Perera departed just one shy of his fifty, Mendis got to his and was involved in another good partnership with captain Angelo Mathews. But he too fell short of a milestone as he became Mitchell Starc’s 100 Test victim. Mathews got to a fifty after wards but couldn’t kick on as Starc cleaned up the tail to bowl Sri Lanka for 281.
In reply, Australia lost Joe Burns in the second ball of the innings but Usman Khawaja and David Warner put on a fifty partnership for the second wicket and off the last ball of the day Warner fell as the visitors ended the day on 54/2.
Interesting numbers from the first day’s play:
0 – Never before in the history of Tests has the opening partnership in the first two innings of a match lasted 3 or fewer balls. In this match, Sri Lanka’s opening stand lasted one ball and Australia’s last two balls.
1 – Mitchell Starc’s figures of 5/44 is the best figures by a visiting fast bowler at Galle. The previous-best was Dale Steyn’s 5/54, while Ryan Harris’ 5/62 is the third-best.
2 – Starc becomes the second Australian fast bowler after Ryan Harris (5/62 in Galle in 2011) to take a five-wicket haul in Sri Lanka.
3 – Kusal Mendis and Kusal Perera’s stand of 108 is the third-best third wicket partnership for Sri Lanka against Australia in Tests.
4 – When he dismissed Kusal Mendis, Mitchell Starc became the fourth left-arm pace to get to 100 Test wickets for Australia.
7 – Sri Lanka have won 7 of their last 10 Tests in Galle while batting first. After opting to bat first, they will be hoping to making it eight wins in 11. Their only loss in that spell was against Pakistan in 2015.
25 – Peter Nevill got to 50 Test dismissals in 25 innings. Among Australian keepers, only Adam Gilchrist (21) and Wally Grout (24) got to the milestone in fewer innings.
100 – In 12 innings so far in the series, both sets of openers have combined for just 100 runs. David Warner’s 42 is the highest score by any opener in the series so far.
262 – Kusal Mendis has scored 262 runs (176 + 86) in his first two Tests innings against Australia, which is a Sri Lankan record. The overall record against Australia is held by Walter Hammond who scored 451 (251 + 200) in 1928.
1999 – Mitchell Starc dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne on the first ball of the second Test. The last Australian bowler to take a wicket off the first ball of a Test was Glenn McGrath, who dismissed Sanath Jayasuriya at Galle in 1999.
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