Australia lock up big win in Sri Lanka series opener

AUSTRALIA V SRI LANKA

Day four of the first Warne-Muralitharan Trophy Test match in Galle, Sri Lanka

SCORE: Australia 6-654 dec, Sri Lanka 165, 247

SUMMARY: Australia recorded their biggest ever win on the subcontinent, thrashing a hapless Sri Lanka by an innings and 242 runs. A collapse of 5-9 meant Sri Lanka were all out inside 45 minutes of the restart on day four on Saturday, with left-arm offspinner Matt Kuhnemann (5-63) leading the way. Australia enforced the follow-on for only the sixth time since 2010 and Nathan Lyon (4-78) and Kuhnemann (4-86) proved chief destroyers on a pitch fast deteriorating. The Sri Lankan tail hung around for longer than in the first innings, No.9 Jeffrey Vandersay (53) providing some unlikely resistance, before Kuhnemann took the last wicket just before tea.

THE MOMENT: Kuhnemann opened the floodgates early in the first session when he dismissed Kusal Mendis. The wicketkeeper fell right into the trap Steve Smith had set, ballooning up to Todd Murphy at square leg as he attempted a reverse sweep. Sri Lanka would go on to lose 5-9 in the space of 26 deliveries, with Australia keeping their foot on the pedal by enforcing the follow-on.

THE PLAYER: Only two and a half weeks ago Kuhnemann had been in doubt for the Sri Lanka series with a dislocated thumb. He finished day four with the second five-wicket haul of his four-match Test career. The mild-mannered 28-year-old took the wicket of captain Dhananjaya de Silva in both innings, as well as strike weapon Kamindu Mendis and lower-order pest Vandersay in Sri Lanka’s second dig.

THE STAT: The loss was Sri Lanka’s heaviest in Test history, eclipsing a 2017 defeat to India by an innings and 239 runs. Vandersay appeared aware of that fact, kicking out at the dirt when he hit Kuhnemann to Mitch Starc at backward point.