Australia grabbed a vantage point on the opening day of the Pallekele Test through the performances of their bowlers, and the only blips on their day were the dismissals of their openers
Daniel Brettig26-Jul-2016A dominant opening day for Australia at Pallekele ran more or less to the script the tourists were hoping to stick with. Features included an even bowling performance, alert fielding and the foundations of a batting platform set, before rain ended the day ahead of schedule.In rounding Sri Lanka up for a mere 117, they also avoided falling behind in the match as they did against Pakistan in the UAE in 2014. This means Steven Smith’s side are in the position they are most comfortable with – driving the game forward from a position of strength, rather than scrapping and fighting to stay in it. From that vantage point, Australia’s aggression looks dashing and purposeful rather than reckless, and opponents under the cosh tend to stay there.Nevertheless, no day is ever quite perfect, and there was one area in which the Australians will be wanting to tighten up at later stages. This is in the tightness of their opening batsmen, David Warner and Joe Burns, both of whom lost their wickets early on to moments of looseness and/or imprecision. The subsequent partnership between captain Steven Smith and Usman Khawaja represented the most measured batting of the day, and showed what players on both sides should be looking to do on a pitch that has offered just enough help to the bowlers, both pace and spin. The surface made the toss more intriguing than most in this part of the world, and it was here that Australia pulled the first of numerous correct reins.Team selection: It had always seemed likely that Australia would plump for twin spin in this series, but given how rarely such a team has been selected in the recent past – just three times have they used a full-time spin tandem since the last visit to Sri Lanka in 2011 – there may have been temptation to divert from that path. Certainly, Pallekele was always going to be the strip offering most assistance to the faster men, as it momentarily did five years ago for Ryan Harris and Trent Copeland.Sri Lanka’s players were known to be unhappy about starting here rather than Galle’s more obviously spinning track, and the ground staff here had clearly tried to dry out their pitch. But the balance provided by Steve O’Keefe was useful to Smith, while Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc operated in shorter spells. All the while, Mitchell Marsh’s lively fast-medium remained in reserve, the day’s lopsided measure best illustrated by the fact that he was not even required to bowl.Intimidation: Before this match, Smith had spoken of the fact that while Australia were playing in conditions they had often found difficult, they were also playing an opponent short of experience and confidence. This meant it was important to get on the front foot early, demonstrating through performance and body language who was in charge. Sri Lanka’s players had been spared the supposedly “demoralising” sight of the Test Championship mace being presented to Smith in public on match eve, but they could not so readily avoid the Australians in the middle.By way of verbals, Kusal Mendis was nearly goaded into reviewing his lbw, which replays showed to be smashing into middle stump. By way of tactics, the focus upon Angelo Mathews was backed up by a none-too-subtle field setting, leg gully and short leg posted when Mitchell Starc ran in at him. It works too: Mathews very nearly offered an edge first ball, then was tentative enough to prod O’Keefe to slip soon after. At no stage were Sri Lanka made to feel like they belonged in this company.Hazlewood: Perhaps it is his SCG upbringing, perhaps his commendable straightness when in good rhythm, or perhaps his height, but Hazlewood was, by a distance, the most impressive Australian bowler on the day. Where Starc was fast but slightly off-peak, Hazlewood worked away steadily, finding his range and then a probing line and length to challenge all batsmen.Initially, it was seam movement on a slightly tacky surface that worked in his favour, seaming one back to pin Mendis, then shading one away from Kaushal Silva. There was a little more swing for Hazlewood in his second spell, and he saved his best delivery for Dinesh Chandimal, a gateway server that had Sri Lanka’s most accomplished batsman playing with a slightly closed bat face to snick behind to Peter Nevill. A couple of tail-end wickets to complete a five-for would have been well-deserved, but competition among an eager bowling attack meant Hazlewood had to be content with three.Use of the spinners: Nathan Lyon and O’Keefe had both trained with near-new balls in the lead-up to the Test, and Smith elected to hand the ball to the latter as early as the ninth over. Immediately, he found the sort of beguiling variation that has helped him build, by a distance, the most handsome Sheffield Shield record of any contemporary Australian spinner.Some balls skidded on, while others gripped. O’Keefe’s slight build and somewhat round-arm action gives him a similar trajectory to Rangana Herath, and he used this well to defeat a tentative Mathews with a hint of extra turn and bounce. Lyon was held back until the last over before lunch, but he too would use the conditions nicely. Three wickets in seven balls spanning the first and third overs after the interval effectively ended Sri Lanka’s innings, with bounce, turn and natural variation all coming into play. Lyon made his debut in this country five years ago; it is fitting he now sits two wickets away from 200 on visit No. 2.Out-of-kilter openers: For a brief moment, Australia’s march towards control of the Test was held up by the rapid exits of Warner and Burns, in circumstances that both batsmen will not be best pleased about. Bowled by full deliveries, neither paid due care and attention, and the opportunity to bat under relatively little scoreboard pressure was wasted.Warner, of course, is very much short of match practice. Having suffered a broken finger to the same hand that already nurses a problematic, previously injured thumb, he delayed his return to the batting crease as long as possible, eschewing the earlier tour match. He is also reluctant to bat in the fast bowlers’ No. 1 net these days, and it is just possible that Nuwan Pradeep hurried onto him with a near yorker touching 141kph. Warner’s feet were slow to move, and the drag onto the stumps maintained a drought of overseas centuries, dating back to March, 2014.Burns has made no secret that these conditions will stretch him, but he remonstrated visibly with himself after miscalculating Herath’s skid with the new ball. Stretching forward to defend, he played for fractional turn, duly leaving a gap through which the ball hurried through. That dismissal mirrored many suffered by the Australians in the UAE against Pakistan, when Yasir Shah and Zulfiqur Babar created similar doubts, to which the only remedy is supremely close attention to the ball through the air and off the pitch. Khawaja and Smith both had similar moments of inexact judgement, but escaped to bat on tomorrow. Many more runs beckon.
