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Match Report: Australia win by an innings and 242 runs

Scorecard

Khawaja, Inglis-led Aussies decimate weary Lankans

After stacking on 6(dec)-654 on a pitch that looked as flat as the Galle Fort Road, Australia then found there is bowling assistance to be had

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      Sri Lanka v Australia | First Test | Day Two

      On any other day, Usman Khawaja's maiden Test double-hundred as Australia piled on their largest first-innings total in Asia would have dominated headlines for at least 24 hours as his team tightened their grip on the first Test at Galle.

      But such was the visitors’ dominance in grinding a listless, and often clueless, Sri Lanka into the mud at Galle it was his teammate Josh Inglis's hundred on debut that ultimately crowned the many batting records compiled across a dominant day two.

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          Clinical Khawaja smashes records in career-best 232

          After stacking on 6(dec)-654 on a pitch that looked as flat as the Galle Fort Road that circles the seaside venue, Australia then found there is bowling assistance to be had as they reduced Sri Lanka to 3-44 before rain spared the hosts further misery.

          Inglis went to the wicket in envious circumstances with Australia 3-401 in the 100th over after Khawaja and Steve Smith had piled on a partnership of 266, and hit his first ball for four to kickstart a memorable knock.

          With his family watching from the stands, Inglis rattled on the second-fastest century in a maiden innings (after India's Shikhar Dhawan's 85-ball effort against Australia at Mohali in 2013) to propel his team's huge innings that was foreclosed an hour before stumps.

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              Inglis rockets to dream century on Test debut

              In the late afternoon sunshine after threatened rain held off, Australia then snared a brace of vital breakthroughs thanks to new-ball pair Mitchell Starc and Matthew Kuhnemann, as well as veteran spinner Nathan Lyon.

              Playing his first Test since India in 2023 and carrying a fractured right thumb from a fielding mishap earlier this month, Kuhnemann struck with the final ball of his first over when he pinned newly recalled opener Oshada Fernando lbw.

              Fernando immediately reviewed the decision, suggesting he had edged the ball into his pad, but third umpire Joel Wilson found that was not the case and the home team had made the worst start imaginable to their daunting reply.

              That position became more dire when Starc, who turned 35 today but was shown scant celebratory regard by Sri Lanka seamer Asitha Fernando who struck the Australian on the shoulder and the helmet with short ball during his short batting stay tonight, gained revenge.

              Sri Lanka's other opener Dimuth Karunaratne sliced the 13th ball he faced to gully slip where Nathan McSweeney – on the field as substitute for Khawaja who understandably was suffering cramp after his batting heroics – held a stunning catch.

              McSweeney got both hands to the initial chance as it flew above his head, then turned and ran back before clutch the parried chance at the second attempt to the bowler's delight and the despair of Sri Lanka fans staring at a scoreboard reading 2-15.

              McSweeney was presented with an even hotter chance in Starc's next over as veteran Angelo Mathews slashed hard outside off stump, but that opportunity eluded the substitute's grasp as it smashed into his outstretched hands.

              Mathews rode his luck further next over when he defended against Lyon, who had replaced Kuhnemann with two right-handers at the crease, only to see the ball land at his feet and spin back on to the stumps where the off bail jumped slightly in its groove before staying put.

              Australia then squandered a review when Kuhnemann, brought back to replace Starc, thought he picked up Dinesh Chandimal lbw on seven but the ball had clearly struck the former Sri Lanka skipper outside leg stump,

              However, Lyon got his man shortly before stumps when Mathews squeezed a catch past the right shoulder of Travis Head at short leg who leaped and threw out his right hand and hung on as he tumbled to the turf.

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                  Head, McSweeney soar as Sri Lanka slump further

                  Sri Lanka's best, perhaps only hope of putting a dent in their distant target sits heavily with Chandimal who himself plundered a double-hundred in his team's victory over Australia at Galle three years ago, and in-form batter Kamindu Mendis.

                  Mendis was the sole Sri Lanka player named in the recently released ICC Test Team of the Year, and he will need to summon all the skill he showed throughout 2024 given Australia's bowlers extracted more from the pitch in 15 overs tonight than the home team managed across almost six sessions.

                  But Australia's new hero on one of their most clinical days of Test cricket on the subcontinent in recent times was Inglis who had waited patiently before receiving Test cap number 470, and seemingly as long before he got a chance to bat.

                  The 29-year-old English-born keeper-batter became the 16th Australia player to achieve the milestone, with a lineage stretching back to Charles Bannerman in the very first Test of 1877, as he brought up triple-figures from just 90 deliveries.

                  While he made the most of the sizeable platform laid down by Khawaja (232) and Smith (141) as Sri Lanka's four-man attack laboured on a pitch that offered them neither spin nor pace.

                  But he was also expected to maintain the momentum his more experienced top-order colleagues had built up, and more than vindicated the selectors' decision to insert him into the starting line-up at the expense of Sam Konstas, with Travis Head elevated to open.

                  Australia's daunting total, which easily overshadowed the 617 at Faisalabad in 1980 which was their previous Test best in Asia, was underpinned by Khawaja's remarkable effort of concentration and skill across almost nine hours of batting.

                  In 30C heat and stifling humidity after heavy rain fell on Galle early in the morning, the 38-year-old's 352-ball innings surpassed his previous Test best of 195no against South Africa at the SCG in 2023.

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                      Classy Khawaja denied maiden Test double ton by rain

                      Not only was it the first double ton by an Australia batter aged 38 or over since Don Bradman did it twice in 1948, he became the first to compile 200 in Asia since Jason Gillespie's logic-defying 201no against Bangladesh at Chittagong in 2006.

                      And it was the highest individual score by an Australia batter in the subcontinent conditions that have so regularly vexed batters from other parts since Mark Taylor's epic 334no at Peshawar in 1998.

                      Not that Galle 2025 is truly representative of traditional spin-friendly Asia decks on which Sri Lanka's finger-weary trio of tweakers sent down a punishing 139 of 154 overs with skipper Dhananjaya de Silva stubbornly refusing to exercise other options.

                      So untroubled were Smith and Khawaja as Australia resumed at 2-330 this morning (following yesterday's rain-shorted first day) there was palpable surprise when the stand-in skipper was dismissed midway through the opening session.

                      He and Khawaja had taken their union beyond 200 – the previous best for an Australia batting pair in Sri Lanka – with relative ease and some measure of caution, though Smith did dance down the pitch to lift tireless Prabath Jayasuriya beyond the long-on rope.

                      But shortly after that blow he played outside a rare wrong-un from leg spinner Jeffrey Vandersay that was initially deemed not out on field, but overturned after an even more unique review challenge by Sri Lanka which showed the ball hitting off stump.

                      Khwaja, who had shown signs of cramping in his legs late on day in the enervating conditions, had reached 178 by the time of Smith's departure and took clear delight in Inglis' regular assault on the boundary.

                      It was a symbolically poor piece of Sri Lanka fielding that saw Khawaja breach 200 for the first time in his 79th Test, making him the first Australia batter to crest that peak since his former opening partner David Warner in his 100th outing against South Africa at the MCG in 2022.

                      The left-hander defended a ball from Jayasuriya that looked certain to be fielded by the bowler on his follow through, but when failed to bend his aching back sufficiently to arrest its progress Khawaja skipped through for a cherished single.

                      The 38-year-old, who had spoken about his Muslim faith the previous evening, celebrated with arms raised, then a long look to the heavens before he dropped to his knees and placed his forehead on the Galle turf in gratitude.

                      He had scaled his never-before-reached summit in 435 minutes of batting, during which he faced 290 balls with 16 boundaries and an imperious six he drilled over the head of luckless off-spinner Nishan Peiris who finished with 0-189 from his 41 overs.

                      The end of Khawaja's innings provided as much a surprise as did Smith's dismissal given the total ease the pair had shown against Sri Lanka's spinners who had operated without input from seamer Asitha Fernando for two consecutive sessions.

                      But it was Jayasuriya, who had destroyed Australia's batting with 12 wickets on debut at Galle when the teams last met, who eventually earned a breakthrough when he switched to around the wicket and grazed Khawaja's outside edge.

                      Even then, keeper Kusal Mendis took three grabs to complete the catch which was very much on-brand for the lacklustre fielding effort the home team had produced in the series opener.

                      It was then fitting that Australia's incumbent keeper Alex Carey was Inglis's batting partner when his fellow gloveman reached his moment of history.

                      Inglis had survived a scare on 58 when given out lbw playing a reverse sweep, but he immediately reviewed the on-field decision which was overturn when evidence showed a faint bottom-edge before ball hit pad.

                      It was one of the rare missteps across his 146-minute knock, in which he mixed conventional and reverse sweeps with powerful back-foot strokes and deft footwork to neuter the impact of Sri Lanka's spin.

                      When he reached his hundred with a punch through cover that brought him three runs, he jumped in deserved delight and raised both arms in triumph as he pointed to his parents who were in tears watching from the stands.

                      He was then wrapped up in a prolonged hug offered by Carey, a close friend of the Western Australian even though the pair technically compete for the sole available role as keeper in the Test team.

                      After today's events, Inglis might be doing a lot more running around the outfield in his new guise as a specialist – and history-making – Test batter.

                      Qantas Tour of Sri Lanka

                      First Test: January 29-February 2, Galle (3.30pm AEDT)

                      Second Test: February 6-10, Galle (3.30pm AEDT)

                      Sri Lanka Test squad: Dhananjaya de Silva (c), Dimuth Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka (subject to fitness), Oshada Fernando, Lahiru Udara, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Kamindu Mendis, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Sonal Dinusha, Prabath Jayasuriya, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nishan Peiris, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Milan Rathnayake

                      Australia Test squad: Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Nathan McSweeney, Todd Murphy, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

                      First ODI: February 12, Colombo (3.30pm AEDT)

                      Second ODI: February 14, Colombo (3.30pm AEDT)