Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne added 166 runs for the fifth wicket to take Australia to a position of strength on day two of the first Test in Brisbane.
Australia were bowled out for 323 runs in their first innings on Friday, 25 January, leading Sri Lanka’s 144 by 179 runs. In reply, Sri Lanka finished day two of the pink-ball Test on 17/1, trailing the hosts by 162 runs with nine wickets in hand.
Pat Cummins got Dimuth Karunaratne (1) caught behind on the last ball of the day to give Australia the perfect finish and leave Sri Lanka without their best batsman of 2018.
Australia began their day on 72/2, only 72 runs away from Sri Lanka’s first-innings total, but lost both the overnight batsmen, Marcus Harris and nightwatchman Nathan Lyon, inside the first five overs of the day.
At 82/4, Sri Lanka seemed to be making inroads, with runs hard to come by early on, but Labuschagne and Head dug in. They guided Australia past 150, with a 50-run stand off 97 balls taking them to tea at 159/4.
The runs flowed after the break as they brought up the 100-run partnership off 175 balls; Labuschagne’s half-century came in 97 deliveries with three fours.
Sri Lanka went wicket-less in the first hour of the second session. It was only after the hosts crossed 200 and Head, too, brought up his fifty – off 109 balls with six boundaries – that Dhananjaya de Silva got Labuschagne caught by Lahiru Thirimanne for 84 just before the dinner break to give his team a breakthrough.
Australia went to dinner at 249/5 in 81 overs, with Sri Lanka having taken the second new ball after 80.1 overs. The final session and the new ball under lights brought good news for the visitors who got two quick wickets in the first hour.Suranga Lakmal trapped Head leg before wicket for 81 and got the Australian captain Tim Paine for a first-ball duck. But by then Australia’s lead had already swelled to 128 runs and even though Sri Lanka kept chipping away at the wickets in the final session, Australia marched into an advantageous position.
Dushmantha Chameera got one to move away from Cummins and take the outside edge to send the batsman back for a duck, as Australia slipped to 278/8.
But Kurtis Patterson, the left-handed batsman on debut, got stuck in, swiveling in his crease and pulling Chameera for a boundary through square leg – his first in international cricket – and following it up with slaps through the covers for two more fours to bring up the 300 in the 100th over of the innings.
Lakmal ensured that Patterson’s nearly two-hour vigil did not burgeon into something bigger than 30 runs. He trapped the batsman in front with a ball that nipped back in, the ‘out’ decision upheld on review.
Mitchell Starc (26*) entertained with a few big hits towards the end of the day, slog-sweeping Dilruwan Perera for two fours and then hitting Lakaml for a six over long-on, to take Australia’s lead close to 200, before Perera wrapped things up for 323.
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