Sri Lanka v Australia in 2022 – Almanack report

Australia have been staunch supporters of Sri Lankan cricket since 1981, when their tour manager, Cam Battersby, came out in favour of the island being given Test status. And they continued that support in mid-2022, undertaking a full tour, with matches in all formats, despite Sri Lanka enduring a constitutional and economic crisis. Not long after the Australians left, the prime minister, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, departed too, if more hurriedly.

The cricket – especially the shared Test series – gave some succour to a country beset by fuel shortages, which meant frequent power cuts. Pat Cummins, Australia’s captain, said he was shocked by what he had witnessed: “Day-to-day life here is tough at the moment, and children are at the very heart of it. We are certainly seeing the effects, with queues kilometres long around petrol stations. That has really hit home for us.” Cummins and his men were especially moved during the fifth one-day international, when grateful fans unfurled banners thanking them for coming.

The Australians – ranked No. 1 – were disappointed not to win both Tests, although a 1-1 draw meant they retained the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy. Both games were played at Galle to save on travel costs and, after winning the first convincingly, Australia came unstuck against the left-arm spin of Prabath Jayasuriya, who marked his debut with 12 wickets. This was after hundreds from Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, countered by Dinesh Chandimal’s maiden double. With the pitch increasingly taking spin, the visitors found a 190-run deficit too much.

The Tests followed two well-contested white-ball series. Australia won the first T20 easily, then wrapped up the series with a closer victory in the second, before Sri Lanka hit back. Australia started the 50-over series with another win, but Sri Lanka took the next three, Pathum Nissanka and Charith Asalanka delighting the locals with centuries. It was Sri Lanka’s first one-day series win over Australia at home for almost 30 years. Overall, the tour’s ten internationals were shared 5-5.

With pitches generally helping the slow bowlers, another new left-arm spinner, 19-year-old Dunith Wellalage, led the wicket-takers in the ODIs with nine. David Warner felt this might backfire on them when the Tests started, as he and his team-mates had been given a lot of practice. Solid batting, especially by Cameron Green and Alex Carey, set up victory on a turning track in the first Test, only for Jayasuriya to have the last word.

It seemed Australia’s batsmen still had work to do to master subcontinental pitches. “We got a lot of lessons out of it to take to India next year,” said Cummins.

Australia touring party: PJ Cummins (T/50 – captain), SA Abbott (20), AC Agar (T/50/20), SM Boland (T), AT Carey (T/50), AJ Finch (50/20), CD Green (T/50), JR Hazlewood (T/50/20), TM Head (T/50), JM Holland (T), JP Inglis (T/50/20), UT Khawaja (T), MP Kuhnemann (50), M Labuschagne (T/50), NM Lyon (T), MR Marsh (T/50/20), GJ Maxwell (T/50/20), JA Richardson (50/20), KW Richardson (50/20), SPD Smith (T/50/20), MA Starc (T/20), MP Stoinis (50/20), MJ Swepson (T/50/20), MS Wade (20), DA Warner (T/50/20). Coach: AB McDonald.
Finch captained in the white-ball matches. Abbott broke a finger before the T20s, and played no part, while Starc injured his hand in the first match and missed the rest of the white-ball games; JA Richardson joined the ODI squad as cover. KW Richardson was also added, after Marsh suffered a calf strain. Stoinis injured his side during the first ODI; Head and Kuhnemann were added. Maxwell reinforced the Test party when Head injured his hamstring, while Holland was called up for the second Test squad after Agar hurt his side.

First Test at Galle, June 29-July 1, 2022: Australia won by 10 wickets

Australia 12pts. Toss: Sri Lanka. Debut: JDF Vandersay.

Sri Lanka’s plan of upsetting Australia on a turning track backfired when they found themselves on the receiving end. On a pitch that took spin from the start, the hosts were bundled out for 212 after Karunaratne decided to bat, with Lyon taking five wickets. Australia’s reply showed they had learned lessons since their previous tour, in 2016, when they were whitewashed 3–0: their batsmen countered Sri Lanka’s inexperienced spin quartet judiciously, using their feet to put the pressure back on the bowlers.

This approach was exemplified by Green and Carey. After Khawaja applied himself well for 71, the middle-order pair swept to good effect – both conventional and reverse – and neutered the spinners’ threat. Green batted more than three hours, while Carey made a sprightly 45 from 47 balls. With eight men reaching double figures, Australia stretched their lead to 109, which almost proved enough once their own spinners got to work again.

Sri Lanka were shot out again, for 113 in 22.5 overs, their shortest completed innings in Tests. Lyon took his match haul to nine wickets, while leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson finished with five. The second innings was polished off by Head, whose part-time off-breaks brought him 4-10 in 17 balls – his first Test wickets, in his 27th match, and his best first-class figures. He had been a doubtful starter: struggling to overcome a hamstring injury, he had declared himself fit only on the first morning. Dickwella’s counterattacking 58 in the first innings was the home side’s only score above 40 in the match. Left with the formality of scoring five for victory, Warner followed a four with a six off Wanigamuni. It was Australia’s first Test win in Sri Lanka since September 2011, also at Galle, when Lyon took a five-for on debut.

This time Lyon, Swepson and Head took 18 wickets between them, while the Sri Lankan spinners paid for a lack of control. They bowled 62 overs without a maiden, and the debutant leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay went for nearly seven an over, though he did take two wickets. The batting in the second innings was just as bad, not helped when Mathews had tested positive for Covid-19; he was replaced by Oshada Fernando. Only Karunaratne made it into the twenties.

The first session of the second day had been washed out by rain and gale-force winds, which swept away part of the sightscreen, plus a huge canvas canopy that normally covers around 5,000 spectators, and shelters the camera crew. But the loss of time did not bother Australia, who piled on 135 in 27 overs in the afternoon. Green showed great poise in his innings, during which 178 were added. “He’s grown up at the WACA, and over in Perth it’s so different to here,” said Cummins. “Players go through their whole careers looking for a method in these conditions, and in his first knock he’s found it.”

Before the match, Sri Lanka Cricket paid tribute to the late Shane Warne, who took his 500th Test wicket at Galle in March 2004, and played a major role in rebuilding the stadium after it was devastated by the tsunami later that year. Cricket Australia’s chief executive Nick Hockley was presented with a silver plaque to be handed to the Warne family in Melbourne.

Player of the Match: CD Green.

Second Test at Galle, July 8-11, 2022: Sri Lanka won by an innings and 39 runs

Sri Lanka 12pts. Toss: Australia. Debuts: NGRP Jayasuriya, PHKD Mendis, MM Theekshana.

As if coming to terms with crushing defeat in the first Test was not enough, Sri Lanka had to reshape their side after a Covid outbreak. Dhananjaya de Silva, Asitha Fernando and Jeffrey Vandersay all tested positive, which led to debuts for spinners Prabath Jayasuriya and Maheesh Theekshana, and all-rounder Kamindu Mendis, whose main claim to fame was an ability to switch between off-breaks and slow left-armers. In the event, his versatility was not required, and Sri Lanka squared the series in style.

The main destroyer was Jayasuriya, a 30-year-old left-arm spinner from Matale, who followed 6-118 with 6-59 as Australia lost by an innings – a fate they had never previously suffered when scoring as many as 364 first time round. “As a group, we had to paid tribute to the behind-the-scenes efforts of head coach Chris Silverwood.

The principal difference between the Tests was the pitch. This was an ideal surface for a five-day game, giving equal opportunity to batsmen and bowlers: as well as Jayasuriya’s 12-wicket haul, there were two hundreds and a double. The first two came on the opening day, which Australia closed at 298-5 after Labuschagne and Smith took advantage of winning the toss by adding 134. Labuschagne’s century was his seventh in Tests, but first outside Australia; he was let off on 28, when Dickwella missed a stumping off Wanigamuni. Just before the close, Smith brought up his 28th – but first since January 2021 – and went on to an undefeated 145 next morning. Jayasuriya twirled his way through, as the last five wickets went down for 35. Still, Australia’s 364 seemed to have set them up well, and they soon celebrated the wicket of Nissanka.

This signalled the start of a tremendous Sri Lankan fightback. First Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis grabbed the initiative in a stand of 152, then on the third day Mathews and Kamindu Mendis gave great support to the effervescent Chandimal, who got off the mark with a four and a six off Lyon, and completed his 13th Test hundred not long before stumps. He was fortunate still to be there, however: when he had 30, umpire Dharmasena turned down a confident caught-behind appeal off Starc. Replays showed a spike – but Australia had used up their reviews.

Chandimal had continued to take the attack to the Australians: on the third day, only four wickets went down, as Sri Lanka moved into the lead. Kamindu Mendis’s promising debut innings ended after more than three hours – and a partnership of 133 – but Wanigamuni helped add 68, and last man Rajitha hung around for 33 minutes without troubling the scorers in a stand of 49. During it, Chandimal reached his maiden double-century; in all, he hit 16 fours and five sixes – three off the unamused Starc – from 326 balls, in 548 minutes. It was Sri Lanka’s highest score against Australia, beating Kumar Sangakkara’s 192 at Hobart in 2007/08, while their previous-highest total against them had been 547-8 at Colombo’s SSC in 1992. Lyon finished with 2-194 from 64 overs, the most bowled in a Test innings at Galle, beating Rangana Herath’s 62 against Bangladesh in 2012/13.

The fourth day was one of the most memorable in Sri Lanka’s Test history. After stretching the lead to 190, they demolished Australia for 151. Only Labuschagne passed 30, and Australia – at one stage 49-0 – lost all 10 for 102. Concentrating on a nagging length, Jayasuriya claimed six more wickets. Echoing the home batsmen in the first match, many of the Australians contributed to their own downfall by sweeping across the line.

It was Australia’s first innings defeat in 33 Tests against Sri Lanka, and their first anywhere since losing to South Africa at Hobart in 2016/17. Cummins was philosophical: “It’s a good reality check for people touring over here – that it’s really hard.”

Player of the Match: NGRP Jayasuriya.
Player of the Series: LD Chandimal.