Published: Aug 17, 2016, 02:18 PM (IST)
Edited: Aug 17, 2016, 02:55 PM (IST)
Sri Lanka have won the third and final Test by a whopping margin of 163 runs on Day Five. With this, they have also registered their first series whitewash versus Australia in Tests. Australia were outplayed in all departments in the three-Test series and will look to forget about this series before heading towards the shorter formats. Sri Lanka started Day Five with the lead standing at 289 runs and batted for some time to give a daunting target of 324 to Australia. Australia started the run-chase in an emphatic fashion as their openers brought up their first fifty run stand but wickets tumbled after lunch to handover a big win to the hosts. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Sri Lanka vs Australia, 3rd Test at Colombo
Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat on Day One and were reeling at 26 for 5 but they were rescued by Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva as both went onto score centuries and propelled the home team’s score to 355. Australia started the first innings by losing out-of-form, David Warner, soon but Shaun Marsh and Steven Smith laid the platform for a big total with a 246-runs stand and both notched up their centuries. After their dismissal, wickets tumbled like nine pins as the lower-order’s inability to hung around Sri Lanka’s spin were exposed again. They, however, managed to take a slender lead of 24 runs. COMPLETE UPDATES: Sri Lanka vs Australia, 3rd Test at Colombo
The story remained the same for Sri Lanka as Mitchell Starc continued to haunt them with a few early wickets and they were again in trouble with the score at 152 for 5. Kaushal Silva stood firm from one end with handy knocks coming from Angelo Mathews, Chandimal and de Silva. Australia took wickets at regular intervals as Nathon Lyon ended the innings with a four-for but still could not run through their lower-order as quickly as they would have wanted.
Rangana Herath ended the series with 28 wickets, most for a left-arm spinner in a three-Test series, and was hence awarded with the Man of the Match and Man of the Series title. After taking ten wickets in the match, he joined England’s Derek Underwood with most ten-wicket hauls (six) for a left-arm spinner. He troubled the Australian bating whenever he was given the ball by skipper, Mathews and has thus exposed their weakness against spin, ahead of the visitors’ grueling season in the sub-continent.
This is also Australia’s fifth whitewash in Tests, in a series comprising of three or more matches. They have been earlier whitewashed by England, South Africa, Pakistan and India. On the other hand, this is Sri Lanka’s fourth Test whitewash after clean sweeping Zimbabwe (twice), Bangladesh (once) and West Indies in 2001. Mathews also became the third captain, after Mahela Jayawardene and Sanath Jayasuriya, to lead his team to a complete demolition of an opposition in Tests.
Australia had their chances in the series but always lost the plot due to their poor showing with the bat. In the series opener, they had dismissed the hosts for 117 and taken a lead of 86 runs but the hosts came back strong, thanks to Kusal Mendis’s ton, to give target of 268 runs to the visitors. Australia could not put up any fight as they lost by 106 runs. In the second Test, Sri Lanka dismissed Australia for less than 200 runs in both the innings to seal the series, with one match remaining. ALSO READ: Karunaratne’s dismissal wasn’t against spirit of the game: Nevill
Sri Lanka have come from behind to win a series in an emphatic fashion after a drubbing they received from England. They also lost their home series versus Pakistan and India in 2015 but played like complete champions to oust Smith’s team. Mendis, Kaushal Silva, Dilruwan Perera and de Silva made a strong statement for the side and will take a lot of confidence moving forward from this series. Chandimal and Mathews also led from the front with their bat and saw the tough time through with the bat.
Australia have two home series lying ahead after this tour as they will host South Africa and Pakistan before they embark on the tour to India. They have to rectify their mistakes soon against spin as they have just not been able to stand for long against the tweakers. In the whole series, Australia lost 54 of the 60 wickets to the spinners, most in a three-Test series ever, which speaks about their sorry state.
After this series, India have regained the No. 1 spot in Tests. Pakistan are breathing down their neck as they are only one point. Australia have lost ten points whereas, on the other hand, Sri Lanka have earned ten points and moved ahead of South Africa to take the sixth spot. ALSO READ: Kaushal Silva: SL determined not to let AUS off the hook
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 355 & 347 for 8 decl. (Kaushal Silva 115, Dhananjaya de Silva 65*, Nathan Lyon 4 for 123) beat Australia 379 & 160 (David Warner 68, Shaun Marsh 23; Rangana Herath 7 for 64) by 163 runs.
FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Sri Lanka vs Australia, 3rd Test at Colombo
In photos: Sri Lanka vs Australia 3rd Test, Day 4
(Aditya Sahay is a journalist with CricketCountry who is completely into sports and loves writing about cricket in general. He can be followed on Twitter at adisahay7)
