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As Australia and Sri Lanka duel for the Warne and Muralidaran Trophy, Alyssa Healy is captaining Australia against England in the sole Women’s Ashes Test at the MCG.
Play has just begun and England are in early trouble after Maia Bouchier nicked one behind for stand-in keeper Beth Mooney to take an early catch off the bowling of Kim Garth in the very first over!
Join Martin Pegan’s live coverage here…
For those who came in late, here’s a match report of day one…
Preamble
Angus Fontaine
Hello cricket fans! Welcome to the Guardian’s over-by-over coverage of day two of the first Test between Australia and Sri Lanka at Galle International Cricket Stadium.
Australia bossed the opening day and galloped to an imperious 330-2 at stumps with Usman Khawaja (147 not out) and Steve Smith (104 not out) piling on the pain for the home side with an unbeaten 195-run partnership for the third wicket.
Smith had a day to remember. Captaining the side in the absence of Pat Cummins (back home awaiting the birth of his second child), he won the toss and chose to bat first on a grassless centre square. Having made the tough call to leave Australian cricket’s shiny new toy, teen sensation Sam Konstas on the shelf, he promoted the side’s No 5 Travis Head to opener with a licence to thrill. Head did exactly that, flaying three fours from the first over as a statement of intent, before going beautifully berserk for the next hour, walloping 57 off 40 balls.
It inspired Khawaja to up the ante too. After 34 innings without a century and a lean summer against Jasprit Bumrah, the 38-year-old looked reborn yesterday. Mixing classical drives and late cuts with adventurous reverse sweeps and paddle slaps, he kept the accelerator down when Head holed out with the score on 92 and Marnus Labuschagne (20) snicked off on 135. Khawaja’s 16th Test century came from 135 balls.
For Sri Lanka, 135-2 was as good as it got. They had already inexplicably failed to review an lbw appeal against Head that replays showed was hitting the stumps, then made the same mistake when Khawaja snicked behind. Khawaja was also dropped twice behind the stumps either side of lunch. From there, it got worse – much worse.
The costliest spill was when Prabath Jayasuriya dropped Smith on his third ball at the crease. By then Smith had secured the solitary run he needed for 10,0000 Test runs. The 35-year-old joined an exclusive club with 15 members including a veritable Rushmore of Australian batters in Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. With a typically quixotic array of strokes, he surged to 50 at run-a-ball then cruised to a 35th ton.
The weather Gods spared Sri Lanka some humiliation, by sending down showers 45 minutes before stumps. It gives day two an early start of 3.15pm AEST. But even if Sri Lanka break the Smith-Khawaja partnership this morning, debutant dynamo Josh Inglis is in next with SCG hero Beau Webster and the cavalier Alex Carey waiting in the wings to pile on the pain. Can the home side hit back? Or will Australia roll on?
Join us in a hot half-hour and we’ll find out.
