The Australian team would have been hoping for a better day of output from its batting line-up, instinctively hoping that they could bat out the day five or six wickets down and with a huge lead having been amassed. That they did not came from the excellence of the Sri Lankan bowling, especially their occasional fill-in skipper who bowled his heart out to keep them in the match and giving them the chance to now rectify what happened on the first day.
Much has been made of the lack of individual centurions in the Australin Test team in recent times, and Maruc Harris’s soft dismissal early on day two didn’t improve the conversation. Having struggled through the previous evening’s session he must have been almost as disappointed as those watching were with his method of being dismissed. Coming to the fore instead were two batsmen maligned for different reasons over the past four months.
Marnus Labuschagne was returned to the Test squad on the whim of the selectors rather than weight of runs, and his inclusion over the young gun Pucovski here had encited grumbles. Inserted at four but dropped down a place after the intervention of Ntahn Lyon as night-watchman, Labuschagne showed the kind of patience that has effectively been missing from the Ausralian batmen this summer, most notable given one particular opponent who showed its positives in his perfrromance this season. Labuschagne was happy to bide his time, and showed a penchant for leaving balls outside the loine of the stumps and keeping an eye on the swing available. Only towards the end of the first session did he take advantage of the ball being further pitched up and closer to the line of his stumps. In the second session he appeared in complete command, picking the right ball and defending well. It was a complete surprise when he popped up a simple catch to mid on with two overs to go before the second new ball to be dismissed somewhat lamely for 81. For all that disappointment, Labuschagne has shown that he does have a temperament for Test cricket. His innings apart from one show an improvement numerically every time he has been to the crease – 0, 13, 25, 43, 38 and now 81. How he fits into this team in the coming few months is yet to be determined, but further improvement over the remainder of this series and the possible introduction of his bowling will make him a very difficult man to cast off easily.
Travis Head has had his problems with loose shots costing him his wiocket when his team has needed more from him, and he as much as anyone would have realised he needed to improve this aspect. Even so, he again gave two chances to the cordon, one a typical Head flash that flew high and wide of second slip which while not technically catchable was a symptom of his rash play, and a second an edge that was dropped by the keeper caught in the middle of nowhere. Both of these chances were where Head’s weaknesses lay and yet given how hard he has fought this summer he was due a little luck, something he then needed to double up on. To his credit he did, fighting against his natural instincts to carefully watch the pink ball and feed off the energy from his partner at the other end. He raised his fourth Test half century in his seventh Test. His partner’s dismissal did appear to stall his progress after the dinner break, and whether or not it was because of his determination to break through to triple figures or not is open to question. The second new ball had proven to be another Test, and eventually his luck ran out when he was adjudged LBW to Lakmal, with the ball tracking showing the ball would have just tipped the bails off. His 84 is his highest Tet score and continues to show the class he has for the game. Like Labuschagne, more of the same this series will make it hard to cast him aside if others are deemed necessary to return in the coming months.
Australia was eventually bowled out for 323, following an excellent debut innings from Kurtis Patterson of 30 who was dismissed in the team cause of chasing late innings runs. It had been a hard slog against some good bowling which was even better in retrospect given that the Sri Lankans had lost Kumara early on day two to back ang leg soreness, as well as Chameera for portions of the day to feet problems. The warrior of the day was Suranga Lakmal who bowled himself into the ground in their absence. He rarely got his pace into the high 130kph range, but he was accurate and dangerous with both swing and seam, and caused all of the batsmen trouble. In the high humidity and temperature engulfing the Gabba he was truly magnificent and produced a number of spells that must have been up there with the best of his career. He dismissed Burns and Lyon, and then Head and Paine with consecutive deliveries, before finishing off with Patterson to claim 5/75 from 27 wonderful overs, and almost single handedly kept Sri Lanka with some semblance of being in the match in restricting the deficit to 179 runs.
They had six overs to survive before stumps which seemed a little light on by the Australians, who could have declared earlier to give them a better use of the advantageous conditions. With one delivery to go it looked as though Sri Lanka was going to survive and set themselves up for a good shot at the next day, but in a Boys Own Annual page, the warhorse Pat Cummins found the edge of the tourists’ best batsman Karunaratne and Paine accepted the chance to leave Australia elated with their evening’s work and have Sri Lanka at 1/17 in the process. It leaves them with a tough road back if they are going to push the match beyond tomorrow’s scheduled third day.
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