Head, Khawaja hit fifties in Australia's rapid start

Half centuries by Usman Khawaja (65*) and Travis Head (57) ensured Australia took an early advantage on the first morning of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. On a pitch with assistance for the spinners, the openers brought up a 92-run opening stand with Head being the aggressor. Stalwart Steve Smith brought up 10,000 Test runs towards the end of the session after he was dismissed on 9,999 by Prasidh Krishna in Sydney.

Australia, having made a change to their openers with Head partnering Khawaja, were off the blocks in a flash after opting to bat. Asitha Fernando erred in line in the first over and was made to pay by the former who dispatched him for three fours. The rollicking start allowed Khawaja to be more circumspect in his approach after his recent struggles in the format.

The batters dispatched Asitha for three more boundaries in his third over but Head survived a LBW call on 23 after the hosts didn't opt to use DRS, as ball-tracking showed three reds. Sri Lanka turned to spin from ends as early as the sixth over with the introduction of Prabath Jayasuriya. But Head continued to find the boundaries off the spinners as the visitors brought up the 50 within the ninth over. Nishan Peiris from the other end too was subject to the onslaught with sixes from both the batters.

Head brought up his fifty off just 35 balls with a single down to long-on. Australia began to get adventurous with a reverse sweep from Khawaja while Head dispatched Peiris over his head. The latter finally holed out to long-on off Jayasuriya but only after giving the tourists a fantastic start.

Jayasuriya began to bowl slower to get more turn off the pitch as the scoring slowed down from the Australians. Jeffrey Vandersay also got one to spin from outside leg stump as the 'keeper collected it outside off-stump. Khawaja slowly worked his way to 50 but survived a few overs later after he was dropped at slip. But Vandersay struck from the other end after Dhananjaya de Silva held on to an edge off Labuschagne on the stroke of Lunch.

Smith got off the mark first ball to bring up 10,000 Test runs. He should have been dismissed a few balls later after Jaysuriya spilled a catch off his own bowling an over before Lunch.

Brief Scores:Australia 145/2 (Usman Khawaja 65*, Travis Head 57; Jeffrey Vandersay 1-19, Prabath Jaysuriya 1-44) vs Sri Lanka