Australia's biggest ever win in Asia underscored the dominance of Steve Smith's men in the first Galle Test
Match Report: Australia win by an innings and 242 runs
ScorecardAustralia thrash Sri Lanka for record victory
Australia have landed their biggest Test triumph on the subcontinent and are eyeing a rare series win in Asia after trampling Sri Lanka into the Galle dirt to record a crushing win by an innings and 242 runs.
On a remarkable fourth day of a rain-plagued game, Australia's spinners – supplemented by fast bowler Mitchell Starc who struck crucial early blows in both Sri Lanka innings – the hosts gave up 15 wickets for 276 in 64.5 overs of fleeting resistance.
The margin would have been significantly wider if not for a belligerently pointless maiden Test half-century by tailender Jeffrey Vandersay (off 47 balls) as part of a 38-run 10th wicket stand.
Australia's previous biggest margin in such alien climes was the innings and 198-run triumph achieved in just two days against Pakistan in Sharjah in 2002, with their prior best win over Sri Lanka completed by an innings and 201 at the MCG in 2012.
To place it in even sharper focus, Sri Lanka's heaviest defeat on home turf prior to today was defeat to Pakistan by an innings and 239 runs at Colombo's SSC ground in 2023.
It also eclipses their heaviest all-time defeat which had been the innings and 239-run loss to India at Nagpur in 2017.
Perhaps most significantly, it ranks as one of the most complete all-round efforts by an Australia Test outfit in Asia given the sizeable contributions of the top-order batting, the quality of spin bowling as well as Starc's speed, and a near-flawless show of catching and ground-fielding.
As a consequence, the visitors head into the second match of the series at the same venue starting next Thursday with confidence soaring.
Having retained the Warne-Muralidaran Trophy through today's success, they are hellbent on just their second series win in Asia since their most recent win in Sri Lanka in 2011, the other being their hard-fought 1-0 triumph in Pakistan three years ago.
They have certainly exerted a stranglehold over their rival spinners after piling on a first innings tally of 6(dec)-654 while the spin trio of Matthew Kuhnemann (nine wickets), Nathan Lyon (seven) and Todd Murphy (one) provided no let-up for batters who usually dine out on spin.
While the constant clatter of wickets today against the gathering backdrop of heavy clouds bringing afternoon rain provided a recurring narrative, there was a couple of decisive breakthroughs that paved Australia's record-breaking win.
The first came early in the day when Kusal Mendis's ill-judged sweep shot gave Australia their first wicket and a look at the home team's brittle lower-order.
But perhaps more significant was star batter Kamindu Mendis's brain fade in the following session when, having forged a rare meaningful partnership with veteran Angelo Mathews, he tried to belt Kuhnemann into the Laccadive Sea and was caught on the rope.
When Mathews then fell in equally impetuous fashion next over to a poorly executed reverse sweep, Sri Lanka were 5-114 – almost identical to the score on which they had resumed not three hours earlier – and still 375 runs away from forcing Australia back to the crease.
Their other batting hopes had crumbled earlier in the day, with Dinesh Chandimal assuming a rare place in history for being dismissed twice in a single session, the second coming from the final ball before lunch having been seventh man out in the first innings.
And skipper Dhananjaya de Silva completed a forgettable outing at the helm by holing out to point the ball after he had played perhaps the most authoritative stroke of his team's kamikaze knocks in lofting Kuhnemann over his head for four.
The end then came with predictable if bravely forestalled haste, as Sri Lanka's last four wickets tumbled for 60 with Kuhnemann fittingly claiming the last scalp under muted sunshine shortly before the tea break which had been pushed back.
It completed a stunning turnaround in a game that seemed destined to go deep into day five after yesterday's final two sessions were entirely lost to monsoonal rain.
In an extraordinary first session of wanton batting, Sri Lanka surrendered 8-104 from 27.4 overs to slide from contemplating a brave draw to instead facing utter humiliation.
At the height of the carnage, the team that had prised out only six Australia wickets across 153 overs of toil on the first two days lost 7-15 from 44 deliveries with the only respite being the 10-minute break between their two calamitous innings.
But while Sri Lanka's batting was dire on a pitch that was proving nowhere near unplayable, their capitulation stood as testament to Australia's planning and execution under the intuitive leadership of stand-in skipper Steve Smith.
After Sri Lanka's four-pronged bowling attack was rarely able to create chances, let along wickets, across the first two days their leg spinner Vandersay conceded he and his fellow tweakers had bowled too slowly on the sluggish Galle pitch.
But while Australia's bowlers were prepared to vary their bowling speeds, delivery points and lines of attack (between over and around-the-wicket) the sharp contrast they provided was built on more than technique and strategy.
Whereas Sri Lanka had reverted to risk minimisation from the moment Australia's new opener Travis Head went on the charge, the visitors persisted with catchers around the bat which was a luxury afforded by their massive first-innings score.
Then there was Smith's tactical nous to rotate through his bowlers in short spells rather than let batters get used to a consistent mode of attack and repeatedly manoeuvre his fielders into formations that can best be described as quirky.
At one stage early in Sri Lanka's second innings when Starc was operating with the new ball, Smith stationed two slips and a regulation gully as well as Marnus Labuschagne at a deeper, wider second gully and two catchers five metres apart at leg slip.
None of those were required when Sri Lanka's hapless opener Oshada Fernando was pinned lbw for the second time in the match without reaching double figures.
You can't get much more plumb than that!
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) February 1, 2025
Mitch Starc gets Australia off to the perfect start after they enforced the follow on #SLvAUS pic.twitter.com/SvFaqVsaKo
While his first dismissal against Kuhnemann was justifiably reviewed and confirmed to be hitting leg stump, today's referral against an in-swinging full ball from Starc was pure indulgence and shown when ball tracking revealed it smashing into the bottom half of middle stump.
If Sri Lanka felt the start to their second innings could not have been more disastrous, that view was amended next over when fellow opener Dimuth Karunaratne allowed a ball from Starc's new-ball partner Murphy to pass unimpeded.
With bat raised above his shoulders, Karunaratne watched in shocked horror as the ball clipped the top of off stump in what was entirely symbolic of the extraordinary day's events.
But the lowest of many grim moments from the home team's perspective came when their top-ranked Test batter Kamindu holed out hitting into the ever-present Galle sea breeze, effectively signalling the hosts had given up any hope of avoiding defeat.
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Qantas Tour of Sri Lanka
First Test: Australia win by an innings and 242 runs
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)