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Betty Wilson, one of the greatest women’s cricketers who was sometimes called Australia’s female Bradman, has died aged 88

Cricinfo staff22-Jan-2010Betty Wilson, one of the greatest women’s cricketers who was sometimes called Australia’s female Bradman, has died aged 88. Her decade-long international career lasted till 1958 and, in an era where there was little women’s cricket, she averaged 57.46 with the bat and 11.80 bowling offspinners in 11 Tests.She made a spectacular entrance to top-flight cricket, scoring 90 and taking ten wickets on debut against New Zealand in 1948. In her next Test, she became the first Australian woman to make an Ashes hundred, and topped that effort with nine wickets in the match. Other highlights in a legendary career include becoming the first woman to take a Test hat-trick, becoming the first person to achieve the double of a century and ten wickets in a Test, and signing off with a couple of centuries and 21 wickets at 9.71 in her final series.In 1985, Wilson became the first woman cricketer to be inducted into the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame and and that year the Under-21 National Women’s Cricket Championship was renamed the Betty Wilson Shield.She was born in Melbourne in 1921 and became part of the club cricket scene by the age of 10, joining Collingwood. In four years, she had graduated to the second XI of the Victoria side and at 16 she was in the state side. A natural athlete, she was also admired for her work ethic – practicing daily when most of her team-mates trained once a week.

England went to lunch on 83 for 2

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jul-2025

Jasprit Bumrah in action•Getty Images

Nitish Kumar Reddy removed both England openers in his first over but the hosts escaped the first session only two wickets down after choosing to bat first at Lord’s. Reddy struck twice in four balls after Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley scraped through the first hour unscathed. Ollie Pope and Joe Root then led England’s recovery with an unbroken stand of 39 before lunch.Duckett was repeatedly struck on his body in a probing first spell from Jasprit Bumrah, who replaced Prasidh Krishna in India’s only change from the side that won at Edgbaston last week. But England reached the drinks break at 39 for 0, despite a frenetic start from Crawley which featured four boundaries – one via the outside edge – and several plays-and-misses.Reddy’s double-strike opened up both ends for India. His first wicket was a freebie, a long-hop down the leg side which Duckett under-edged through to Rishabh Pant on the pull, but his second was a beauty. He angled the ball into Crawley, then found late movement away off the seam to take the outside edge, as India sensed an opportunity.Pope was dropped between those two wickets, edging his first ball – a full outswinger – to gully, where Shubman Gill could not hold onto a tough, low chance, diving to his right. But after his early life, he grew in confidence alongside Root, and they saw off Bumrah’s third spell to reach the lunch interval at 83 for 2.Ben Stokes’ decision to bat first on winning the toss – for the third time in a row – was met with cheers at Lord’s, after bowling first had backfired at Edgbaston. Gill admitted he was “a bit confused” about what he would have done but said that he would have leaned towards bowling in the belief that the only assistance from the pitch would come early on the first day.

‘That was the slowest pitch a visiting team could ever play on in Australia,” Pakistan team director says

Danyal Rasool11-Dec-2023Pakistan team director Mohammad Hafeez has criticised the pitch and conditions laid out for Pakistan’s warm-up game in Canberra, saying he was “really surprised and disappointed by the arrangements.”Speaking to reporters at the WACA ground following Pakistan’s morning training session, Hafeez said Pakistan were excited by the challenge, but appeared particularly irked by the tour arrangements for game against the PM XI in Canberra, at one point implying it might have been tactical.”That was the slowest pitch a visiting team could ever play on in Australia,” he said. “As a team we are really happy with our preparations because we ticked most of the boxes.”Everyone knew [the pitch wasn’t what we wanted], so there was no point of saying it again and again and raising the issue with Cricket Australia. The disappointment was really high because we weren’t expecting these kinds of arrangements. Maybe it’s tactical but we’re ready for it. We’re not using it as an excuse, we’re absolutely ready for the challenges coming up.”The PM XI game has traditionally been a limited-overs game in the Australian capital city, but has been played as a four-day contest over the past two years. Only three days of play were possible, with a freak storm bringing an early conclusion to the game. Pakistan batted 116.2 overs and scored 391 for 9 before declaring. But on a noticeably slow surface, they toiled for 141 overs, managing just four wickets.Related

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The game being a proper first-class game meant they could only use eleven players, and were further reduced to ten when Abrar Ahmed went off with an injury that has now ruled him out of the first Test.While Hafeez – and Pakistan – were clearly upset by the variance between the conditions they wanted and the ones they got, the weather may have had a bigger say in it than any tactical considerations. There was significant rain in the lead-up to the game, to the extent the ground was underwater at one stage, so preparing a pitch to any particular specifications was always going to be a challenge. In addition, the Manuka Oval has historically tended to offer flat decks, with limited pace on offer. Recently, the outfield was relaid, and was also quite slow.But there were positives to take from the contest for Hafeez, most notably in the form of the new Pakistan captain Shan Masood’s innings. Masood scored an unbeaten 201 in an innings where none of his team-mates managed a half-century. Hafeez was particularly effusive about him and his abilities as a leader.”For me, seeing Shan become captain is no surprise” Hafeez said. “He was always ready for this role, and when you get this sort of opportunity, it shines. He’s a superb player, and as a leader, he’s got a great rapport with the players and a great relationship with the whole team. His experience as a captain and what he’s learned over the years – especially the couple of years he’s played county cricket – have all seen his management skills have come to the fore even more. What’s important is this is a confident unit that’s here and Shan is playing his role very well.Hafeez also insisted he wasn’t pointing out his disappointment with the Canberra surface as an excuse, saying he was confident this team had the ability to walk away with a series win. Pakistan have traditionally found playing in Australia harder than anywhere else, having lost their last 14 Tests on the bounce in the country, spanning five whitewashes.”This Test team is very settled. They’ve all done a great job for Pakistan cricket. Everyone is excited to take the challenge. Performing in Australia would be great for them. We are here to beat Australia, not just to compete.”As a team, we believe we have great talent within the team who can win in Australia. The guys are really hungry to perform in Australia. They wanted to take that excitement and challenge in the right spirit. The message the team conveyed is they want to beat Australia this time.”

Pakistan represents the majority of the additional names in the draft and includes Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq and Khushdil Shah

Andrew McGlashan24-Aug-2022Ross Taylor, Mohammad Hasnain and Will Smeed are among the final batch of players confirmed for the BBL draft on Sunday taking the total of number of registered players to 332.Hasnain, who is eligible for retention having played with Sydney Thunder last season, is one of two more players in the final group, which were received shortly before the nominations closed on Sunday. Fellow Pakistani Fakhar Zaman is the other having played one game for Brisbane Heat in the 2021-22 edition.Hasnain had his bowling action reported during last year’s competition but has since been cleared to resume bowling.Pakistan represents the majority of the additional names in the draft and includes Test opening pair Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq as well as middle-order white-ball hitter Khushdil Shah.Taylor, who is now retired from international cricket, could be an interesting option if a team is looking for an experienced batter as he does not have any conflicting deals at the moment.Smeed is the highly-rated young English batter who has a strike-rate of 146.23 from 52 T20 matches and he recently became the first player to hit a century in the men’s Hundred. He has already gained global interest and has an ILT20 deal with MI Emirates in January.Off the 332 players lined up for the draft, 28 are eligible for retention by clubs they played for last season. The first 12 players are part of the platinum list, which was announced on Monday, with the rest following in gold, silver and bronze categories.A maximum of 24 players will be signed during the draft with clubs needing to pick a minimum of two and maximum of three names.

The Sunrisers captain struggled to get going in a 55-ball innings, scoring just 57

Saurabh Somani28-Apr-20212:25

Trevor Bayliss: ‘There’s no reason why we can’t turn it around like last year’

David Warner will not look back very fondly at the match that got him his 50th IPL half-century and his 10,000th T20 run. Warner struggled to 57 off 55 against the Chennai Super Kings, contributing to a sluggish start as the Sunrisers Hyderabad slumped to a seven-wicket defeat to stay at the bottom of the points table in IPL 2021.”I take full responsibility. The way that I batted was obviously very slow,” Warner told host broadcaster Star Sports at the end of the match. “I was hitting a lot of fielders and [was] very, very frustrated… Look I take full responsibility from a batting point of view. I felt [that with] Manish [Pandey] coming back into the team, the way that he batted was exceptional. And obviously Kane [Williamson] and Kedar [Jadhav] towards the back end there, they put some boundaries away and got us to a respectable total. I felt that we were probably just below par from where we were. But yeah look, at the end of the day, I’ll take full responsibility.”It is not that Warner wasn’t to get the ball away, but he never found the combination of timing and placement right. A lot of his forcing shots couldn’t hit the gaps, and those that did hadn’t travelled sweetly enough off the bat and could therefore be cut off. ESPNcricinfo’s control percentage illustrates both points: Warner was not in control of his shots for 20% of his innings which comes down to 11 balls, a high enough figure anyway given the length of his innings.He was in control for 44 balls, but those yielded only 56 runs. Normally, when a batter of Warner’s ability is in control for that many balls, you would expect a higher yield. But against the Super Kings, he couldn’t pierce the gaps even when he timed the ball well. The lack of runs told on Warner, who audibly indulged in self-recrimination and angry, frustrated swings of the bat after yet another ball had not gone where he wanted it to.”I hit probably 15 good shots to fielders, [as] simple as that,” he said. “I can’t do much about it. They’re the ones that make or break your innings I think. In the first six overs, I hit [to] the fielder four or five times. There was one guy on the leg side, I hit it straight to him with a full toss. It gets frustrating as a batsman when you’re out there. But at the end of the day, I took too many balls.”The Sunrisers’ coach Trevor Bayliss acknowledged that Warner was finding it tough but backed his captain to come good at the post-match press conference.Related

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“Look I think David will be the first to admit he struggled to hit the gaps today,” Bayliss said. “He hit a lot of balls to the field today. Obviously, with David that doesn’t happen a lot. Tonight it did, so yeah that put us a bit behind the eight-ball, but the other guys batted really well in a team effort. Unfortunately, 170 [171] wasn’t quite enough. I thought they bowled pretty well and then obviously batted well.”Warner’s 55-ball 57 was worth only 24 points on ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats. An indication of how low that is, is demonstrated by how much Kane Williamson’s 26* off 10 deliveries was worth, which was nearly double at 44 points.Williamson’s knock, in fact, was worth more than even Pandey’s 61 off 46. Pandey didn’t accelerate enough through the middle overs and at the death. The Sunrisers have top-heavy batting in their playing XI, with Warner, Jonny Bairstow and Williamson expected to do the heavy lifting. Ordinarily, an innings where Warner has faced 55 balls might have yielded 75 to 100 runs for them. But this happened to be one of those days when everything went wrong for Warner.With the team sitting at the bottom of the points table and time to catch up running out, they will need this to be a one-off.

Sunil Gavaskar, Milind Rege and Chandu Borde pay tribute to Bapu Nadkarni

Nagraj Gollapudi and Vishal Dikshit17-Jan-2020In a heartfelt tribute to Bapu Nadkarni, who died on Friday aged 86, Sunil Gavaskar has hailed the former India allrounder’s attitude and cricketing acumen. Gavaskar was in Rajkot, as part of the commentators’ panel for the India-Australia ODI, when he heard the news of Nadkarni’s death.”He came as assistant manager for quite a number of our tours,” Gavaskar said. “He was very encouraging. His favourite term from where we all learnt from was ‘ (hang in there)’. He was gritty despite playing in the days when gloves and thigh pads were not very good, not much protective equipment as you would get hit, but still hang in there as he believed in . You are playing for India. That thing we learnt from him. “Every time he was on a tour he was very very helpful in terms of strategy. At lunch time or tea time, he would say ‘try this’, if you were a fielding captain. He would tell, ‘bring this bowler, or ask this bowler to bowl around the wicket.’ He was fantastic. Indian cricket has lost a real champion.”Gavaskar also recalled Nadkarni’s role in getting Sandeep Patil to bat in India’s second innings in Sydney in 1981, after he had retired hurt following a blow to the head from a Len Pascoe bouncer in the first innings. Patil went on to score 174 in the next Test match in Adelaide.”He [Nadkarni] was the one who kept urging Sandeep that ‘it doesn’t matter, you are here and you should go out and bat again.’ Bapuji was the assistant manager on the tour. It was only because of him that Sandeep went on to score that 174 in the next Test match because Bapuji was constantly there with him.”Bapu Nadkarni with fellow Mumbai and India stalwarts Dilip Vengsarkar and Ajit Wadekar•Getty Images & Hindustan Times

Milind Rege, the former Mumbai captain, said Nadkarni was a true allrounder.”Bapu Nadkarni was a great allrounder of Indian cricket and definitely a pillar of Mumbai cricket,” Rege said. “He didn’t get the accolades he deserved. He was one of the lead spinners and then would bat at No. 5 for Mumbai.”Rege reckoned that Nadkarni’s figures of 32-27-5-0 in his famous spell against England in Chennai would never be eclipsed. “Records are meant to be broken, but 21 overs and 5 balls without giving a run will never ever beaten by anybody.”Rege would call Nadkarni ‘Bapu ‘, as a mark of respect. Rege, along with his friend and teammate Gavaskar, learned a valuable lesson from Nadkarni, a characteristic Mumbai cricket is often associated with. “The thing that applies to Mumbai cricket, he would be right at the top. He was not a stylish player at all. With that stance he had, he managed to score important runs including the 283 not out against Delhi in the 1960-61 Ranji Trophy semifinals. He just would not give anything away, he was that .”Off the field, Nadkarni was a soft-spoken man, known to be particular about details. “Bapu was a lovely person,” Rege said. “The gentleman cricketer. Sunil and I played with Bapu when we were 17. He was among the Mumbai greats who nurtured us. He had a great sense of humour. And he could take a joke on himself and laugh it away.”Bapu Nadkarni (fifth from left) during a corporate tour of Pakistan in 1961•SD Rege/ACC Ltd

Chandu Borde, one of India’s leading lights in the 1960s, presented an example of Nadkarni supporting him at what he called a “crucial” time in his career. “It was one of the early Tests of my career,” Borde said. “I do not recollect exactly which one, but it was in Calcutta. I got a telegram from Pune (Borde’s home). It was to inform me that my relative Dayanand, who had played a big role in my cricket during my young days, had passed away in an accident.”Bapu hid the telegram under the pillow while I was batting. Later when I read the telegram I confronted Bapu: “What is this Bapu? Why did you this?” Bapu calmly told me he did not want me to be distracted. It was a crucial match for me. Till then my performances were not exciting or big. This was a crucial innings for me and Bapu did not want me to be disturbed.”Nadkarni, Borde said, always put the team first. “He was, what we in Marathi say an , one who had only friends and no enemies. Bapu was a very good team man, always appreciating his teammates’ performances.”According to Borde, Nadkarni’s upbringing and his family’s interest in sports was a major factor in his open personality. Borde recounted that Nadkarni was good at more than one sport, having played badminton at a high level. As for his cricket: “He was a very useful man to the team, a great contributor, stayed long at the wicket, was a good close-in fielder, and was a very accurate left-arm spinner.”

Keep up to date with all the news from on and off the field during the Big Bash

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jan-2019Willey suffers shoulder injury
January 22Perth Scorchers import David Willey has been ruled out of the remainder of the Big Bash League with a left shoulder injury. He will fly home on Tuesday night for further assessment and treatment in the UK.It is understood the injury is not serious at this stage but has been bothering Willey, the England allrounder, since the Scorchers’ loss to the Hobart Hurricanes on December 30 in Launceston.He was ruled out of the Scorchers latest match against the Hurricanes last Friday night and the ECB medical staff have advised him to return home.Willey has endured a frustrating tournament form-wise with both bat and ball coming off limited cricket in the lead-up. He was shuffled through multiple roles with both bat and ball. He batted in three different spots in four innings, including opening the batting, and his bowling role changed regularly in the games he played.Willey has not played for England since the India series last July after a back injury ruled him out of the tour of Sri Lanka.The Scorchers do welcome back some key Australian internationals for their next match against the Sydney Thunder on Thursday at Perth Stadium. Shaun Marsh and Jason Behrendorff both return from ODI duty.Wicketkeeper batsman Sam Whiteman has been ruled out for two to three weeks with a quad injury he suffered in the loss to the Hurricanes. But Josh Inglis appears to have overcome a broken toe and looks set to slot in as a like for like replacement.Vince replaces Denly at Sixers
January 11Sydney Sixers have roped in James Vince for the remainder of the season as a like-for-like replacement for fellow England batsman Joe Denly, who has been called up by England for the Test series in the West Indies later this month.Vince, who recently played for Auckland in the Super Smash in New Zealand, had earlier turned out in the 2017-18 BBL season for the Sydney Thunder. He is set join the Sixers squad ahead of their match against the Perth Scorchers on Sunday at the Optus Stadium.”I’m extremely excited about joining up with the Sixers,” Vince said. “The Big Bash is a fantastic competition to be a part of. The guys are playing some great cricket at the minute and are in a strong position heading into the second half of the tournament.”Hopefully I can hit the ground running and make some good contributions that will help us go all the way this year. Sydney is a fantastic place and the SCG is an incredible ground, I can’t wait to get started.”The Sixers are currently third on the points table and have seven more games left in the league stage.Mark Waugh hits at BBL batting
January 4The quality of batting in this year’s BBL has provoked debate. Melbourne Renegades have yet to register an individual half-century in five matches and on Thursday limped to 9 for 126 against Adelaide Strikers. Not for the first time it was spin causing the major problems as Liam O’Connor, Rashid Khan and Colin Ingram proved a handful.It was enough for Mark Waugh to term the standard of batting against spin as “embarrassing” although he had also noted a couple of days previously that the state of some of the wickets wasn’t helping.Australia had an awful time against spin in the UAE last year when they played three T20Is then struggled against Kuldeep Yadav in the India series in November. Their next T20Is are set to be in India during the limited-overs tour which starts next month so life is unlikely to get easier.Maddinson nears comeback
January 4Nic Maddinson is closing in on a comeback from the broken arm he suffered in the Sheffield Shield last month having surprised himself at the speed of his recovery.Maddinson needed surgery after being struck by a short ball from Jhye Richardson and was unsure whether he would hit the surgeon’s timescale of a return in around four weeks. But he appears on course for that with a comeback looking likely when Melbourne Stars face Perth Scorchers at the MCG on Wednesday.”It seems to be pulling up better and better after everything I do,” he told the . So I thought, why not push it a bit harder and try and play.”

SLC, however, believes it can have a conversation with the players and convince them to tour the country

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Oct-2017Sri Lanka’s players have indicated strong reluctance to travel to Lahore for the third T20I against Pakistan, by signing a letter that requests the match be moved to a neutral venue. SLC officials, however, are likely to attempt to convince the players to tour. The board will discuss the issue further at its executive committee meeting on Monday.Though the players have not definitively ruled out traveling to Lahore, the mood in the dressing room is one of firm objection. “I don’t think the players will change their stance,” a cricketer, who was among the 40 contracted players who signed the letter, said. Not only were Suranga Lakmal and Chamara Kapugedera physically present on the bus that was attacked in Lahore in 2009, the other players are aware of the trauma suffered by those on board. The current players also believe the 2009 team suffered a singular attack in the world of sport, and are unwilling to be among the first teams to return to Pakistan.SLC CEO Ashley de Silva said player security remained the board’s primary concern, and that “a decision will be made at the ex-co meeting taking into account all the security information”. But other officials, such as president Thilanga Sumathipala, appear very keen on the team traveling to Pakistan. The board is expected to make an appeal to the players over the next few days. The country’s sports ministry is also keen to send a team.Both parties have tread softly so far, out of a desire not to incense the other: the players have stopped short of issuing a categorical refusal; the board has at no stage indicated there would be punishments for players who decline to travel.But for the other major party in the equation – the PCB – a refusal from Sri Lanka’s main players would amount to a setback, given the progress they had recently made in bringing back international cricket to the country. SLC officials were quick to point out that not only have Sri Lanka’s players been promised the same level of security afforded to the World XI team in September, but that the ICC was also content to now send its match officials to Pakistan.If the majority of players are unconvinced by SLC’s overtures, however, the board may consider sending a second-string team comprised of those who are willing to travel. Thisara Perera, who played in the World XI series, is understood to be favourable towards traveling to Lahore again.The chances of a full-strength Sri Lanka team playing in Lahore, however, have diminished with the signing of this letter. For the administrators of both boards, who had all spoken with optimism about this match going ahead, that is something of a problem.

Sri Lanka recovered from 26 for 5 on the first day against Australia in Colombo to reach 214 for 5 at stumps. Dhananjaya de Silva was the stand-out with his maiden Test century, compiled in an unbeaten 188-run stand with Dinesh Chandimal

The Report by Brydon Coverdale13-Aug-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal rescued Sri Lanka on a gripping first day in Colombo•AFP

Sri Lanka: 214 for 5. Hardly an inspiring score at stumps on the first day of a Test. Runs ground out, just a few wickets here and there, Australia probably on top. Nope. This was not the kind of day that can be judged from the closing score. It was a day on which Sri Lanka’s top order capitulated to be 26 for 5. A day on which Dhananjaya de Silva, in his third Test, led the recovery with a brilliant maiden century. And a day that ended with Sri Lanka in command.The runs came slowly, but at least they came. They came with patience, class, respect for good bowling and, yes, a little bit of luck. But the way de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal rebuilt this innings was, for fans of Test cricket, a thing of beauty. Australia’s batsmen could learn something from their approach. By stumps, de Silva was on 116 from 240 balls, Chandimal on 64 from 204, and their partnership was worth 188. They had undone all Australia’s morning work.The dry pitch turned from the first hour. Nathan Lyon picked up two wickets early, then like Jon Holland, bowled well without fortune as the day wore on. Sri Lanka’s three-man spin attack will pose Australia significant challenges. There was little swing, not as much reverse as in the previous two Tests. Australia picked four pace bowlers but used only three. All of the pace wickets came from Mitchell Starc, comfortably Australia’s best player of the series.If Australia’s batsmen have looked bewildered on this tour, the selectors appeared similarly baffled in Colombo. How else to account for shortening their batting order when runs have been their biggest problem? Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja were dropped, Shaun Marsh and Moises Henriques came in. Henriques, with a first-class batting average of 31, an average of 15 in the last Sheffield Shield season, and no first-class cricket since November, was listed at No.5. He did not bowl.The selectors believe Henriques bats well against spin. It is true that he scored 68 and 81 not out against India on Test debut in Chennai in 2013. But he failed to reach double figures in the rest of that tour, a series that also featured clouded selection policies. It remains to be seen how Henriques will handle Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera and Lakshan Sandakan, but his selection was a clear message to the incumbents: learn how to play spin, or you won’t play in Asia.Sri Lanka’s batting has also faltered often in this series, but always there has been someone to rescue them. In Pallekele it was Kusal Mendis with a remarkable maiden Test century in the second innings. In Galle it was Mendis again, with 86 after the score wobbled to 9 for 2 on the first morning. This time it was de Silva, who entered this series uncapped, and by stumps on day one in Colombo sat second only to Mendis on the series run tally.The precarious situation when de Silva walked to the crease cannot be forgotten: 26 for 5. Yes, the series was already won, but suddenly there appeared the very real prospect of Sri Lanka finishing with a humiliation: overhauling their lowest ever Test total, the 71 they scored against Pakistan in Kandy in 1994, seemed a distant goal. And indeed, when de Silva was given out caught at bat pad off Lyon for 5, disaster seemed likely.But de Silva knew he had not hit the ball – hadn’t even got close to it, really. He reviewed the decision of umpire S Ravi and was rightly reprieved and from then on – this was the 20th over of the morning – not a single wicket fell for the rest of the day. There were some nervy moments – Mitchell Marsh spilled a tough chance at gully when Chandimal was 11, two Australian reviews were struck down, de Silva was dropped by Shaun Marsh at cover on 104 – but the batsmen survived.De Silva attacked when given the chance and struck three fours in one over from Starc. He was strong when pulling and flicking off his pads, though his boundaries came all around the ground, including plenty through cover. His fifty came with a lofted boundary over cover off Mitchell Marsh, his hundred with another boundary cut off the legspin of Steven Smith. It took de Silva 209 deliveries to reach his century. It was a proper Test innings.Chandimal was even more circumspect, nudging singles and rotating the strike, playing the perfect foil to de Silva. His fifty came from 165 deliveries, and by stumps he had struck only four fours. Even more than de Silva he showed Australia’s batsmen how a challenging pitch can be handled: with the utmost patience. Chandimal himself had walked out at 24 for 4, a frenetic first hour bringing plenty of wickets.Sri Lanka’s openers continued their disastrous series, Kaushal Silva flashing at Starc and edging to slip for a 15-ball duck, and Dimuth Karunaratne bowled trying to drive Starc for 7 from 34 deliveries. Neither man has reached double figures even once in this campaign from five innings, Sri Lanka’s series triumph having come in spite of their insipid top order. What might they have achieved if the openers had found form too?Lyon was called on in the sixth over of the Test and immediately found some turn. In the 12th over he struck with a delivery that was fullish, quick and spun appreciably, and Kusal Perera managed only an edge to Smith at slip. Lyon claimed another wicket when Angelo Mathews top-edged a sweep and was caught at fine leg for 1.Then Mendis flashed hard at a Starc delivery that angled across him and Smith snapped up his third catch at slip for the morning. Mendis had been the key batsman in the first two Tests, and Australia thought his wicket was the big one. As it turned out, at least two big ones were still waiting to be taken at stumps.