Galle: Under the gaze of the venerable Dutch fort, Australia finally conquered Sri Lanka after a siege lasting eight days over two Test matches that will take the tourists into June’s world championship final as firm favourites to defend their title.
Nathan Lyon (4-84) took the crucial wicket on the final morning, before Usman Khawaja (27 not out), Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne (26 not out) made quick enough work of the target to end the match well before the lunch break by a nine-wicket margin.
Usman Khawaja guided Australia to the win.Credit: Getty Images
The Australians travelled to Sri Lanka well aware they had not won a series here since Lyon’s first in 2011, a tour so long ago that he and Khawaja are the only two team members to have made both trips.
For that reason, the selectors largely favoured pragmatism, including Josh Inglis instead of Sam Konstas and playing Head at the top. Cooper Connolly had little to do in his debut Test match after being included to lengthen the batting order at the expense of Todd Murphy – a debatable call.
Matt Kuhnemann (4-63 and 16 wickets overall) was Australia’s bowler of the series, while captain Steve Smith (272 runs, two centuries and the player-of-the-series award), Khawaja (295 runs), second-Test player of the match Alex Carey (202) and Inglis (a debut century) could be particularly proud of their tours.
Beau Webster (2-6) enhanced his reputation as a willing contributor to the team in all facets of the game, while Labuschagne was relieved to notch his highest score of the series to put a final seal on the chase. Whether that helps him keep his spot for Lord’s remains to be seen.
Lyon effectively had the last word on the series by conjuring the kind of delivery that not even the nimble Kusal Mendis could do anything about. With the field set deep, Lyon dropped his first few deliveries short, and Kusal declined to take a single.
But when he ventured a little fuller with plenty of action on the ball, Lyon extracted turn and devilish bounce, the ball leaping at Kusal’s gloves and plopping obligingly into the hands of Smith at short fine leg – the only fielder anywhere near the bat.
There was a sense of hurry to Australia’s play that suggested they were wary about the prospect of the Sri Lankans pushing the fourth innings target into tricky territory. After Kusal was out to Lyon’s freak ball, Australia submitted a couple of failed lbw reviews and also claimed a catch that replays showed had fallen short of Webster.
In trying for a run out, Smith also threw hard towards the non-striker’s end and appeared to stir up his problematic right elbow, grimacing and shaking the arm and his head for a time.
Steve Smith’s problematic right elbow troubled him after a throw in the field.Credit: Getty Images
After the catch referral forced the Australians back to the middle, Smith then took off Kuhnemann and Webster made the most of his chance by coaxing an ugly heave out of Kumara first ball.
Chasing 75 to win, Head and Khawaja each faced their share of demon deliveries in the first couple of overs, as some balls twisted off the surface and others snaked through straight. But they picked the right balls to attack and quickly the target was whittled down.
With 37 to get, Head snicked Prabath Jayasuriya into Kusal’s gloves, bringing Labuschagne to the middle for one more innings on a disappointing tour. He played fluently in the circumstances, and took the opportunity to flick a ball from retiring Sri Lankan veteran Dimuth Karunaratne through the leg side for the winning run about 15 minutes before the interval.
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