Sri Lanka's erstwhile captain Tillakaratne Dilshan and their likely next
leader Angelo Mathews did their best to drag their team back into the
Test on the third day at Bellerive Oval, but a relentless Peter Siddle
ensured Australia remained well on top. Again the weather in Hobart was
fickle, leading to all sorts of session adjustments, and by the time a
late stumps time arrived Australia's advantage had grown to 141, leaving
them to set Sri Lanka a target over the next two days.
David Warner and Ed Cowan had reached stumps safely, Cowan on 16 and
Warner on 8, and Australia were 0 for 27. There had been nervous moments
for both men - Cowan would have been lbw on 5 had Nuwan Kulasekara
convinced his captain to ask for a review, and Warner edged just wide of
second slip - but all that mattered was that they had survived.
The Sri Lankans had been dismissed for 336 during the final session,
their last four wickets falling for 20 runs after Dilshan and Mathews
had earlier batted for the best part of two sessions without letting the
Australians break through. Australia's cause was not helped by an
injury to Ben Hilfenhaus, who left the field with a suspected side strain
while bowling his fourth over, and it meant plenty of extra work for
the rest of the attack. It was a good thing they had Siddle.
Against the South Africans in Adelaide last month, Siddle had carried
Australia's bowling in a similar situation, when James Pattinson had
suffered an injury mid-match, and here again he was the man to whom
Michael Clarke turned. Siddle responded by attacking the stumps, drying
up runs, accumulating maidens and eventually was rewarded with a
five-wicket haul, including the key dismissals of Mathews for 75 and
Prasanna Jaywardene for 40.
Siddle finished with 5 for 54 from his 25.3 overs and his efforts were
all the more valuable because Australia's other fit genuine fast man,
Mitchell Starc, struggled to find consistent lines and lengths. Dilshan
and Mathews were allowed to rattle on at a fast tempo in the first
session and although the runs slowed down after lunch, the wickets
didn't start to pile up for Australia until the post-tea period.
Dilshan's third Test century in his past four Tests was the key for Sri
Lanka, who required someone to anchor the innings after they stumbled to
4 for 87 at stumps on the second day. Dilshan had ample support from
Mathews in a 161-run stand, a Sri Lankan Test record for any wicket in Australia, and he reached his hundred shortly before lunch, which was called early due to rain.
Although Dilshan was stuck in the nineties for half an hour, he
eventually brought up the milestone from his 148th delivery by steering a
ball from Siddle behind point for a boundary. His vocal celebration
showed how important the innings was to him and his team, and it was
important that he hadn't let things stagnate in the morning.
Dilshan was very strong through the off side, cutting and driving with
power and he finished with 21 boundaries, largely in the region from
backward point to long-off. Although he slowed down after lunch, and
appeared to tire as the day wore on, he continued to blunt the bowlers,
offering only the occasional half chance, an edge that flew safely or a
swing and a narrow miss. By the end of his innings, Dilshan had played
out 200 dot balls, a remarkable tally, but one that the Sri Lankans
didn't care too much about given the runs he provided.
For much of his innings, Dilshan was accompanied by Mathews, who picked
up a couple of early boundaries by pulling short deliveries and was very
impressive down the ground to the spinner Nathan Lyon, using his feet
well and taking few risks. He moved past his half-century from his 127th
delivery but on 75 was lbw to Siddle, a review unable to save him from
the umpire's verdict.
Not that the Australians were perfect in their use of the review system
either. When Dilshan was on 125, the cordon gave a half-hearted shout
for caught-behind but the bowler Siddle wasn't interested; had they
reviewed the not-out call, Dilshan would have been gone, as Hot Spot
indicated the ball had tickled the outside edge on the way through to
Matthew Wade. Eventually Dilshan was bowled by a Starc yorker for 147,
and from there the wickets started to fall more regularly.
Prasanna Jayawardene made a brisk 40 before he was the victim of a very
judicious lbw review by Clarke off the bowling of Siddle. The umpire
Tony Hill had turned the appeal down as it appeared to have come off the
inside edge, but replays showed the ball had flicked the pad before the
bat, and Jayawardene was sent on his way. Soon afterwards Rangana
Herath was given lbw off Siddle and there had been an inside edge before
pad, but Sri Lanka had no reviews left to reprieve Herath.
The final two wickets fell with the score on 336, Nuwan Kulasekara, who
had earlier survived a missed stumping by Matthew Wade, caught on the
boundary by the substitute Jordan Silk off the bowling of Nathan Lyon
for 23, and then Chanaka Welegedara caught at gully off Siddle for a
duck. It left Sri Lanka 114 behind on the first innings, and although
they had boosted their chances of playing out a draw, much work remained
for them over the remaining two days.
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