AUSTRALIA TOUR OF SRI LANKA 2025

No revisiting the Galle surrender for Sri Lanka

Australia beat Sri Lanka by an innings and 242 runs in Galle
Australia beat Sri Lanka by an innings and 242 runs in Galle ©Getty

Prabath Jayasuriya must have stopped on his way back and turned his head around to see the big screen at least a couple of times. You wondered why though. Why would Sri Lanka's premier spinner want to see a replay of what he'd just done? To relive the awful shot that he'd just attempted while being cleaned-up by Nathan Lyon. For, let's face it, it was pretty bad.

A wild swing against a full delivery from his counterpart that snuck under his bat and smashed into his stumps. Yet, for some reason, Jayasuriya wanted a second look. Maybe even he couldn't believe what he'd just done.

The thing is it wasn't even the worst shot of the day. It wasn't even the most disappointing illustration of the complete lack of fight shown by the Sri Lankans as they collapsed in a heap to suffer their heaviest Test defeat of all time.

And batting at No 8, a position bit too high for him anyway, it wasn't after all Jayasuriya's responsibility to show the kind of fight that the rest of the specialist batting group had failed to show. But his dismissal in the second innings after the home team were made to follow on, was symbolic of the systemic lack of gumption on display from the Sri Lankans. That too on a ground that they've hand-picked to get the better of the Australians. On a pitch that was designed in many ways to suit them more than the opposition. With a group of players who've spent most of their careers getting acclimatized to these conditions.

Fifteen wickets in two sessions riddled with mindless batting and the kinds of dismissals that will not make for pretty reading or viewing. On a day that probably the Sri Lankans would not only want to forget in a hurry.

It really was that unacceptable. If anything, to even spend so much time talking about the Jayasuriya wicket would be doing disservice to the many other brainfades that played out at the Galle International Stadium on Saturday.

This is not to take anything away from how good the Australian spinners were on a pitch that by Day 4 had started to break up and offer a lot to them. Not to forget Mitchell Starc's early bursts in both innings. Or the fact that it was a Test win set up by Australia in their only batting innings as they piled on 654 on the board before utilising that mammoth score to pressurise the Sri Lankans into submission.

Not that the hosts needed much external pressure to submit and succumb. Or so it seemed as five of their batters were dismissed twice on the fourth day, with Dinesh Chandimal becoming only the 12th batter in Test history to be dismissed twice within the same session.

It all started with the uncalled for sweep attempted by Kusal Mendis within the first hour of play in what was still Sri Lanka's first innings. The wicket-keeper had started the day quite fluently alongside the well-set Chandimal, and for the first 25 minutes, the classy duo had formed the kind of partnership that had started making Smith alternate his bowlers and his plans. And then came the Mendis shot that opened the door for Australia.

He'd attempted a sweep in the previous over off Matt Kuhnemann which had just evaded the one fielder who'd been placed around a deepish square leg region just for the shot. It was the most obvious trap you could imagine. Then in the next over, he went for it again, this time messing it up completely and skying it straight into the waiting, moving hands of Todd Murphy. It was a glaring mistake. An unforgivable one. Within 25 deliveries of Mendis losing the plot, Sri Lanka had lost 4 of their remaining wickets, most of them to Kuhnemann who finished with a five-wicket haul and had been bowled out.

There had been reports of torrential rain being on its way from the inland, just like there had been on the third day, which saw only 27 overs being bowled.

Australia were always going to make Sri Lanka bat a second straight time. But maybe the Lankans could find some resolve to keep them at bay and hope the weather plays ball in their favour.

The rain never came but neither did the fight from Sri Lanka. Bizarrely, they also chose not to use the roller on the pitch. Maybe they had just given up. Maybe they felt it wouldn't matter anyway.

They batted with a similarly defeatist attitude for sure. Their attitude and approach against the Australian spin trio was laced more with haplessness than any sort of conviction. Attempting reverse sweeps even before they'd got sighters, trying to swing for the fences with no intent or keenness to create any impression.

Dimuth Karunaratne shouldered arms to a slider from Murphy while not even covering his stumps with his front foot. Angelo Mathews falling to a poorly executed reverse-sweep, which he tried to play without getting into the right position or picking the right ball to play it off.

Then came the other moment of great frustration for Sanath Jayasuriya and his coaching staff. The highly-touted Kamindu Mendis being the guilty party. That too after he'd started his innings in flying fashion with a range of attractive shots against the spinners. Including the one he played immediately before he got out.

It was a lovely shot over Kuhnemann's head after he'd jumped out his crease, with the ball hitting the boundary boards after bouncing only twice. He'd already launched the left-arm spinner over wide long-on for six a bit earlier, which had prompted Australia to have Starc placed exactly in the same position by the rope.

Still, Kamindu decided to chance his arm despite all the odds being stacked against him being successful with it. From the fact that he was hitting into the stiff breeze, to the fact that Starc was placed just for the shot. A bit of credit to Kuhnemann as well for having given this delivery a bit more air and dragged it slightly wider of the left-hander's off-stump. It seemed inevitable that Kamindu's hoick would end up in Starc's waiting hands. And it did, ending another brief period of resistance from his team.

It was pretty much what captain Dhananjaya de Silva did as well a bit later, falling to an untoward shot while trying to repeat the shot off Kuhnemann he'd got a boundary with off the previous delivery. Only to scoop it into the Beau Webster's hands in the cover region. This after he'd thrown his wicket away in the first innings to Kuhnemann as well.

While Sri Lanka continued to crumble, Steve Smith was playing Tetriswith his fielders. Moving them around, shifting them around, having an absolute ball, alternating from orchestra conductor to chess master, with his bowlers delivering the goods for him repeatedly. He was having the time of his life, just like the rest of the Australians were, even as Sri Lanka hurtled towards one of their lowest points as a Test team. On a day that they'll never want to revisit again, intentionally anyway.

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