Brief score: SL [Chandimal 71, Kusal 59*; Starc 16-3-37-3] at Stumps on Day 1
Opting to bat first, Sri Lankan openers Dimuth Karunaratne — playing his 100th and final Test — and the returning Pathum Nissanka accrued 19 runs off the first seven overs against the new ball pair of Mitchell Starc and Matt Kuhnemann on a dry and dusty Galle track. The latter seemed to be troubling Nissanka time and again, seeing which Steve Smith brought his premier spinner Nathan Lyon onto the attack and the veteran took just four deliveries to capitalize on a desperate sweep attempt by rattling the stumps. Nevertheless, the experienced pair of Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal kept ticking the scoreboard along, the formner even gloriously taking on Kuhnemann with a six and a four in the 17th over. However, the Oz grip tightened as the ball grew older and dust puffs became bigger but the duo battled through to take Lunch at 87/1.
The break was exactly what the visitors needed as within 15 deliveries in the second session, Lyon showed brilliant variations of pace to deceive and castle Karunaratne for a well-made 36. Just three runs came off the next six overs as the pressure kept mounting and culminated in Angelo Mathews going fishing for a wide-ball from Lyon to end his 26-ball struggle for a solitary run. Kamindu Mendis fared better, managing 13 runs, but lasted only 21 balls before the golden arm of Travis Head had the prodigy caught at first slip. A half-hearted expansive drive by skipper Dhananjaya de Silva against Starc two balls later furthered the collapse as Lanka found themselves reeling a 127/5 even as Chandimal made his way to a half-century at the other end. With the ball also old and Starc extracting prodigous reverse swing in an unplayable spell, the opener dug deep alongside Kusal Mendis to avoid any further damage before Tea but much like earlier in the day, the break came back to haunt the hosts.
14 balls into the third session, Chandimal leant forward to defend Kuhnemann, only for the ball to spin and bounce past as Alex Carey whipped off the bails with the batter still off-balance and outside the crease. It took the Mendis pair of Kusal and Ramesh to finally stop the bleeding as they scraped together 65 runs to take the islanders past 200 and into competitive territory. However, once the new ball became available, Starc quickly moved the innings towards its endgame by having both Ramesh and Prabath Jaysuriya nick behind on consecutive deliveries. Understanding the need to rack up as many as quickly as possible, Kusal took charge with two commanding boundaries to bring up his fifty and after Kuhnemann got rid of Nishan Peiris, Lahiru Kumara survived 12 deliveries to keep the Lankan innings alive at Stumps.
Yes but that approach was very poor .. didn’t remember that poor in at least I remember 17-18 years of odi cricket traditionally batting’s been strong in Sri Lanka.. good players of spin our batters distinguished from all..
— ~sb~ (@Shubham70590144) February 6, 2025
Action
#Cricket #SLvsAUS Watching live online action, day 1, 2nd test Galle. Sri Lanka won toss & batting first are 220/8 Starc has taken two in two. Kusal & Ramesh Mendis had put together a solid partnership earlier, but hosts need more than this total, to offer Aus a challenge. pic.twitter.com/z0xOUObrdT
— Chris S.Dixon -Writer (@ChrisCsd1) February 6, 2025
Win it
I back Sri Lanka mens team to win the second cricket test match against Australia which is being played at Galle international stadium. pic.twitter.com/jEDPKPYBSo
— VIKRAM INAMDAR (@InamdarVikram) February 6, 2025
Jos Buttler scored his first ODI fifty on Indian soil, and now Buttler has scored 50+ in ODIs in 10 different countries. 🤯
Jos Buttler now has a 50+ ODI score in:
✅ England
✅ New Zealand
✅ South Africa
✅ Netherlands
✅ West Indies
✅ UAE
✅ Australia
✅ Sri Lanka
✅… pic.twitter.com/18xFswrnLF— All Cricket Records (@Cric_records45) February 6, 2025
Just imagine
imagine hosting the Australian cricket team at home in Sri Lanka and Mitch Starc gets ya captain for a golden plucka. Worst feeling #SLvsAUS
— regan kerr (@regan_k_) February 6, 2025
Loved it
I’ve always loved cricket – many (mostly bats) didn’t think the Aussie pitches were fair in the India series but it was one of the best series. Now we’re watching “bocce” in Sri Lanka. #SriLankaAustralia @RSNBreakfast
— Fremiership (@BrianJArbuckle) February 6, 2025
Another few Years , This England cricket team will become like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
Chutiya players strike rotate karna nahi jaante. Bus Maro 8 overs uske baad collapse. This whole tour collapse mc#IndVsEng— cricinfor (@cricinforr) February 6, 2025
Interesting
Warne – Murali Test Series
2 nd Cricket Test
Sri Lanka looks decent at 215/6 but lost the momentum in latter part to be 229/9.Sri Lanka lacks a genuine quickie like Starc who could turn the game on one’s favour with some quick wickets.— lalantha fonseka (@LalanthaFonseka) February 6, 2025
2 in 2
Mitchell Starc picked 2 wickets in 2 balls as he picked up 3/37 for Australia !!#SLvsAUS #SLvAUS
pic.twitter.com/JqNHKZKK5K— Cricketism (@MidnightMusinng) February 6, 2025
Srilanka made 229/9 at the end of day 1.
-Lyon & Starc takes wickets each for Australia
-Chandimal & Kushal mendis played good innings for Srilanka #SLvsAUS pic.twitter.com/rVoCNI1G0u— Rohit Baliyan (@rohit_balyan) February 6, 2025
