The Aussies couldn’t believe their luck as the ball had hit the stumps at a fair magnitude, but such cases have happened often in cricket lately.
The chaos unfolded in the middle during the end moments of the second day of the first Test between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle. Nathan Lyon bowled a fuller-length delivery to Angelo Mathews, who looked to nudge it away, but the ball rocked back to the stumps.
However, the bails didn’t dislodge, and Mathews got a lifeline. The Aussies couldn’t believe their luck as the ball had hit the stumps at a fair magnitude, but such cases have happened often in cricket lately.
However, Mathews couldn’t last long as Travis Head took a tremendous diving catch to his left a couple of overs later. Nathan Lyon bowled a fuller-length delivery outside the off-stump line, to which Mathews lunged forward to defend but could only get an inside edge as the ball gripped and turned sharply.
Head, standing at the short-leg region, initially moved a bit to his left before quickly diving aerially to his right. The ball came straight into his hand to give Australia his third of the innings, and the fielder deserved equal credit for this wicket.
Australia kept their domination going on the second day of the Galle Test and kept Sri Lanka under immense pressure. They posted 654/6 in their first innings, their highest total in Asia, with Usman Khawaja (232) leading the way with a magnificent double century.
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Steve Smith (141) and Josh Inglis (102) also scored fabulous centuries to propel Australia to a massive first-innings score. Prabath Jayasuriya and Jeffrey Vandersay snared three wickets each, but every bowler went for plenty.
During the second innings, Sri Lanka didn’t have the brightest of starts as they lost Oshada Fernando in the second innings. Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews didn’t last long either as they were 30/3 inside ten overs.
Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Kuhnemann, and Nathan Lyon snared three wickets each for Australia. Sri Lanka are still 610 runs behind and would require heroics to remain alive in this contest, while Australia are firm favourites to win the game and take an early lead.
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