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Following his side's loss to Australia in the first Test at Galle, Sri Lankan coach Sanath Jayasuriya expressed disappointment with his team's shot selection and their inability to convert promising starts into big scores.
Australia delivered a strong all-round performance, filled with record-breaking efforts from Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon to defeat Sri Lanka by an innings and 242 runs to retain the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy and take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series. Following the match, Jayasuriya said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo, "There was a serious problem with shot selections, as well as with handling situations. I do not think certain players have handled situations well. They are experienced players, and they have to be more mature." The former all-rounder also remarked that the team has played a lot of cricket and "should know how to play". "I have talked to them about this. But we have got to talk to them in detail about this now. Also, we cannot blame the wicket. Because we saw how the wicket behaved. This was a very good wicket. For a long time, we have not seen such a good wicket in Galle, on the third and fourth days," he added. A crucial issue was Sri Lankan players not being able to convert their starts into big scores. During the first innings of Australia, six batters played 50 balls or more. But in Sri Lanka's innings, only Dinesh Chandimal played more than 50. In the second innings, Chandimal, Angelo Matthews, Kamindu Mendis and Kusal Mendis got off to solid starts but failed to hold down the fort for their team. Jayasuriya called for more consistency in converting starts into something impactful. "The biggest problem is the batters who are taking a start but are not going to play a long innings. This is something I always mutter. We saw Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and Josh Inglis, all three of them took a good start and they converted them to big hundreds. This conversion must be there. We are not consistent in that. Our players should know that these are our conditions and we must make use of these conditions. There were lots of opportunities but we did not make use of them," the coach said. Coming to the match, Australia won the toss and opted to bat first. Coming to the match, Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. A 92-run partnership between Usman Khawaja and Travis Head (57 in 40 balls, with 10 fours and a six) kickstarted things off for Australia. Steve Smith became the fourth Australian to touch the 10,000 mark in Tests and centuries from him and Khawaja marked Australia's day one end at 330/2. On the next day, misery and runs from Australian batters continued to pile up for Sri Lanka and the spin bowling trio of Prabath Jayasuriya (3/193), Jeffrey Vandersay (3/182) and Nishan Peiris (0/189) looked hopeless beyond repair. Smith fell to Vandersay (141 in 251 balls, with 12 fours and two sixes) after the team crossed the 400-run mark while Khawaja converted his century to a maiden double ton, making 232 in 352 balls, with 16 fours and a six. Josh Inglis on his Test debut, also slammed a 94-ball 102 with 10 fours and a six, taking Australia beyond the 600-run mark. Contributions from Alex Carey (46*), Beau Webster (23) and Mitchell Starc (19*) helped Australia reach 654/6 declared, their highest-ever score in Asia, outdoing the 617 runs scored against Pakistan in Faisalabad in 1980. If Australia had batted once in these two days, Sri Lanka was made to do it twice. In the first innings, SL ended day two at 44/3 but ended the innings at 165 thanks to Dinesh Chandimal, who played a valiant knock of 72 in 139 balls, with nine fours. Matthew Kuhnemann (5/63) took his second Test fifer, while Nathan Lyon got three scalps. Mitchell Starc also got two to become the fourth Australian to complete 700 international wickets. Sri Lanka could not remove the 489-run deficit in the second innings, as by day four, they were bundled out for 247 runs, with Jeffrey Vandersay (53 in 47 balls, with seven fours and two sixes scoring maiden Test fifty and Dinesh Chandimal (31 in 49 balls, with three fours), Angelo Mathews (41 in 59 balls, with six fours), Kamindu Mendis (32 in 26 balls, with four boundaries and a six), skipper Dhananjaya de Silva (39 in 50 balls, with eight fours) and Kusal Mendis (34 in 47 balls, with four boundaries) throwing away their wickets after getting starts. Kuhnemann and Lyon took four wickets each, crushing the Lankan Lions by an innings and 242 runs. Khawaja took home the 'Player of the Match' title. (ANI)
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