Australia furthered their domination over Sri Lanka on Friday in the first Warne-Muralitharan Trophy Test despite rain allowing just the first session of play to be conducted. The visitors chipped away two more wickets to move closer to victory even as Dinesh Chandimal scored a fighting fifty.
The third day began on a frantic note with Dinesh Chandimal, unbeaten overnight on nine, went after Nathan Lyon in just the third over of the day and reaped three boundaries as reward. However, the outburst was never enough to shift momentum and within 15 deliveries the pendulum swung back in Australia’s favour with the prodigous Kamindu Mendis tickling a Mitchell Starc delivery down his pads for Alex Carey to puch a simple catch and reduce the hosts to 67/4.
Skipper Dhananjaya de Silva walked in next and provided a rare sense of stability for the islanders as he combined for 40 comfortable runs with Chandimal who was nearing a half-century when the hosts struck themselves again. Dhananjaya aimlessly skipped down the track against Matthew Kuhnemann, was comprehensively beaten by the turn and bounce before Carey whipped off the bails and the Lankan frustration was appropirately mirrored in Chandimal’s despairing reaction.
Nevertheless, Chandimal kept chipping away with Kusal Mendis now at the other end and with 15 minutes to go for Lunch, the heavens opened up to save Lanka further embarrassment for now.
