Australia finished Day 2 of the second Test against Sri Lanka in a commanding position as they took a 73-run lead in the first innings on Friday, February 7 at Galle International Stadium, Galle. Steve Smith (120*) and Alex Carey (139*) took their team to stumps, scoring marvellous hundreds to frustrate the hosts as Australia finished on 330/3.
The day began with Sri Lanka resuming their first innings on 229/9 in 90 overs as Kusal Mendis continued his 59-run knock and added some crucial runs for his team. He was unfortunately left stranded on 85, with Matthew Kuhnemann dismissing Lahiru Kumara (2) to bring an end to Sri Lanka’s innings on 257.
Mitchell Starc (3/37), Nathan Lyon (3/96) and Kuhnemman (3/63) were the top performers for Australia with the ball picking three wickets each. After bundling out Sri Lanka for a low score, Australia once again got off to a brisk start as Travis Head began his innings playing in his usual attacking fashion.
However, his stay at the crease came to an end on 21 as Nishan Peiris trapped him in his flight and made him edge to captain Dhananjaya de Silva at slip. Sri Lanka got another success in the very next over as Prabath Jayasuriya trapped Marnus Labuschagne (4) in front of the stumps to leave Australia on 37/2.
After two early wickets, Steve Smith joined Usman Khawaja at the crease and the duo once again threatened to take the game away from Sri Lanka, adding 54 runs for the third wicket. Seeing Smith and Khawaja bat together, the hosts were reminded of their massive partnership in the first Test.
However, Nishan Peiris once again came to his team’s rescue and dismissed Khawaja (36) lbw just at the start of the second session to end his threatening stand with Smith. Following his wicket, Sri Lanka had a great opportunity to claw their way back into the game as Alex Carey joined Smith at the crease.
Smith began his innings cautiously and survived a couple of close lbw shouts. He seemed to have the rub of the green on his side throughout his innings as his edges fell short of the crease and on one occasion the ball was perilously close to his stumps as he got beaten by a sharp turn.
However, the Australia captain continued to hold one end and brought up his 42nd half-century. On the other hand, Carey also got set at the crease and completed his fifty as the duo put on a century stand for the fourth wicket. After getting comfortable at the crease, Smith and Carey pressed on the accelerator in the final session as Australia’s stand-in captain brought up his 36th Test century.
Courtesy of his innings, he got levelled with Rahul Dravid and Joe Root on the fifth spot in the list of most Test centuries. Carey also brought up his second Test hundred and became just the second wicketkeeper from his country to achieve the milestone in Asia.
Smith and Carey put on a marvellous display of stroke-making in Galle, bringing the crowd to the edge of their seats. As a result, Sri Lankan bowlers ran out of juice in the final session with both batters piling on the agony by extending their partnership to 239. The day finally ended with Carey finding a boundary towards fine leg to cap off a dominating day for the visitors.
