By Daniel Brettig
Galle: Spin twins Matt Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon have obliterated Sri Lanka, with a little help from Mitchell Starc and Todd Murphy, to deliver the home side’s heaviest-ever defeat and ensure retention of the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy.
Only Johannesburg in 2002, Brisbane in 1946 and Port Elizabeth in 1950 have delivered bigger margins for Australia than the innings and 242-run chasm between the tourists and Sri Lanka here.
Matthew Kuhnemann (third from left) was central to Australia’s win, with nine wickets for the matchCredit: AP
If at times it looked almost too easy for the Australians, they had plenty among their number to remember humiliations on these shores in 2016 and 2022 as a reminder that no victories in south Asia should ever be taken for granted.
Not so long ago, Australia had little idea of how to succeed in the subcontinent in general, and Galle in particular, but this time the margins have been vastly in favour of acting captain Steve Smith’s team.
To sum up the gulf, Dinesh Chandimal suffered the rare humiliation of being dismissed twice in the same session to the same bowler, falling lbw to Lyon for 72 as the hosts’ first innings evaporated. He was then taken at short leg off glove and thigh pad in the final over before lunch.
Starting the day at 5-136, Sri Lanka lost all their remaining 15 wickets inside two sessions, a sizeable ignominy. It’s not as though Sri Lanka have struggled to be competitive in recent Test matches.
They belted New Zealand here last year, before the Black Caps went on to win in India, and were contenders for the World Test Championship decider for much of the cycle, only to be tipped out when Australia beat India at the SCG in January. That said, the lack of WTC context to this series may have contributed to some of the home side’s more desultory play at times.
Kuhnemann (5-63 and 4-86), Lyon (3-57 and 4-78) and Murphy have rekindled the partnership they had in India in 2023. Fitness and age permitting, they can be expected to be called upon again in India in 2027, when Australia will be seeking to win there for the first time since 2004.
This Test match has also added to some welcome headaches for the national selectors in terms of how to fit so many capable batters into their XI for the WTC final against South Africa at Lord’s in June. Cameron Green is on course to return to fitness, after Josh Inglis’ sparkling debut hundred, and Usman Khawaja returned to form with a career-high 232 that earned him the player of the match award.
After losing two sessions to rain on day three, the tourists were conscious of not wasting any time – even delegating members of support staff as boundary riders to throw the ball back as soon as possible whenever the ball hit the rope.
They made brutally quick work of Sri Lanka’s remaining first innings wickets on the fourth morning, claiming 5-9 in little more than four overs, before Smith sent Sri Lanka in again. It was the only decision that made sense, given fresh bowlers and forecast rain.
Kuhnemann had been the most consistently dangerous member of the bowling attack with his wristy left-arm spin. It was he who broke a pesky stand between Chandimal and Kusal Mendis by coaxing the wicketkeeper to sweep at a ball that dropped and then bounced, resulting in top edge to deep midwicket.
Lyon followed up by beating Chandimal on the reverse sweep with a quicker, flatter ball, resulting in an lbw verdict that was upheld on DRS.
That put the Australians into the tail, and Kuhnemann flummoxed his opposite number Prabath Jayasuriya with flight and turn before Nishan Peiris squeezed Lyon to short leg for Inglis’ first Test catch. Jeffrey Vandersay skied Kuhnemann to hand the former Queenslander the second five-wicket haul of his short Test career after he also did the trick in Indore in 2023.
Sri Lanka’s Nishan Peiris has his castle rattled in the fort town of Galle, where Australia stormed to an emphatic win in the first Test.Credit: AP
When Sri Lanka’s openers walked out 10 minutes later, Starc (2-13 and 1-11) swung the new ball with the help of the sea breeze to pin Oshada Fernando lbw. Murphy then used square seam to befuddle Dimuth Karunaratne, who shouldered arms to what he thought was an off-break, only to hear it skid on and clatter into the stumps.
Lyon’s strike right on the adjournment gave the tourists every chance – weather permitting – to wrap this match up with a day to spare. Kamindu Mendis played his shots in early afternoon, but it would cost him his wicket when he tried to hoist Kuhnemann over the leg side two balls in a row and skied one into the breeze. Starc waited for an eternity under the chance, but took it safely.
Next over Lyon nabbed Angelo Mathews when a reverse sweep attempt drew a top edge onto the body and into the hands of bat/pad. For a moment, the Australians thought they had Kusal Mendis lbw to Kuhnemann on the sweep, only for third umpire Joel Wilson to rule that some noise on Snicko might have meant the ball hit the bat.
That decision freed Mendis and Dhananjaya de Silva to raise Sri Lanka’s first 50 stand of the match. But Kuhnemann coaxed a miscue to cover from Dhananjaya, Lyon tempted Mendis down the track for Alex Carey to stump him despite a fumble, and a vast Australian victory was just a matter of time. Jeffrey Vandersay’s tailend 50 merely delayed the inevitable.
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