- Updates from the fourth day of play at Manuka Oval
- Any thoughts? Email or tweet @GeoffLemonSport
13th over: Sri Lanka 28-2 (Thirimanne 15) The wicket falls from the last ball of the over, just after Thirimanne had played a nice straight drive off Starc for three. And who’s this walking out at No4? It’s not Kusal Mendis. It’s not Kusal Perera. It’s Niroshan Dickwella! The wicketkeeper. Batting at two wickets down. Free to express himself at last. Sri Lanka’s Independence Day will be Dickwella’s Independence Day. He has got to get him one alien.
Today, Chandimal is French for Chandibad. I’m not sure that he’s a No3, but he’s insisted on playing there. Goes with hard hands defensively at a ball on a good length, into his body, and it takes the shoulder straight off to second slip. Chandi hangs around for a while to see if the catch carried, but the soft signal is out and the replay does nothing to dispel that idea.
12th over: Sri Lanka 25-1 (Thirimanne 12, Chandimal 4) The captain is proceeding serenely by waiting for balls on his pads and then working them for singles. Thirimanne faces most of the Richardson over, circumspect throughout this time, running a single away on the off side to end the stanza.
That’s very unexpected, but the man who was staggering off the ground dizzy and bent double yesterday morning will apparently bat when required later today. That doesn’t tally with anything I know about concussion protocols, so it would be interesting to hear what the full story is there. Anyway, that’s all we’ve been told.
11th over: Sri Lanka 23-1 (Thirimanne 11, Chandimal 3) Starc again to Chandimal, who knocks a single to leg. Thirimanne lets a few good balls go, then chases a very wide one that he can’t get near. There’s another wayward one past leg stump as well.
Why wasn't Tim Paine up at the stumps for that run out @GeoffLemonSport? And why does such dilatory play never attract criticism these days? SL would be one down now had Paine done his job.
10th over: Sri Lanka 22-1 (Thirimanne 11, Chandimal 2) Richardson to Thirimanne, who leaves most of the over alone before hitting one uppishly through midwicket. Loves that airborne stroke, this man.
@GeoffLemonSport It's all I can do to restrain myself from waving a lighter in the air during the Sri Lankan national anthem. All it needs is a ten minute drum solo.
9th over: Sri Lanka 20-1 (Thirimanne 9, Chandimal 2) Normal service resumes, with Starc swinging one down leg side. That’s no problem at all when he’s also bowling the wicket-taking ones. Chandimal, the skipper, is now at the crease. He opens his account by working two runs through square.
Got him! Starc was knocking over Karunaratne for fun in Sri Lanka back in 2016, but hasn’t been able to replicate that in Australia. Now he does, left-arm over to a left-hander, a bit of shape in perhaps, looks like a slight inside edge but perhaps there wasn’t even that. It clips leg stump after stating outside off stump, and off go the bails as the ball flies down to the fine leg boundary.
8th over: Sri Lanka 18-0 (Karunaratne 8, Thirimanne 9) Jhye Richardson commences from the Manuka Church end, beneath our window. Great view here. He gets some early swing into the pads, and Thirimanne bats out a maiden.
7th over: Sri Lanka 18-0 (Karunaratne 8, Thirimanne 9) Starc is starting us off for the day, having regained the confidence of his captain. He didn’t start with the ball yesterday morning. Away we go, and there’s nearly a run out second ball! Thirimanne drives straight to Cummins but runs anyway, and Australia’s gun misses the throw at the striker’s end that would have done for Karunaratne. The dicey single is all they get, as Starc cranks up the speedometer and the short ball in the first over.
Twitter certainly has its downsides, but it also offers things like this.
Did some digging RE 1928 Brisbane Test following @GeoffLemonSport& @collinsadam revisiting it on The Final Word.
The pitch was doing heaps - seam, swing, bounce. Aus got hit with a sticky wicket on day 5 (hence the 66 all out).
Some light colour (par2): https://t.co/Fq3ZnKznWN
This has been a good Test for Australia in terms of finally getting some tangible results for individual players who needed them. Obviously the circumstances of a lower-ranked opponent facing all kinds of injury difficulties in foreign conditions mean that players have a much better chance to do well. But it still matters to make the most of that chance.
Usman Khawaja has, getting his first hundred of the summer and hopefully a bit of spring back into his step after some injury hassles and during some ongoing off-field dramas. Joe Burns made a huge one when it mattered in the first dig, as did Travis Head, and Kurtis Patterson followed up with his own hundred once the ascendancy had been won. Mitchell Starc then grabbed five wickets, even if at times in strange and fortuitous ways. So they’re all on the board.
As always, you can make your own contributions to the OBO: thoughts, questions, considerations. Find me on Twitter at @GeoffLemonSport or email me at geoff.lemon@theguardian.com.
A lot of angst on the timeline this morning about Jason Holder’s suspension from the final West Indies Test hosting England. He’s been an inspirational leader in this series and got his team to 2-0 up, and now he’s been banned for bowling too slowly. Well, for his team bowling too slowly, not for his own figures on the speed gun. Which might have been an issue earlier in his career.
A lot of arguments (these are the rules) and counter-arguments (how can your over rate be too slow when you’ve won in three days). I have some sympathy for both sides of it. Slow over rates are annoying. But then, if a team is winning with four fast bowlers coming off long run-ups and taking lots of wickets, why should they have to stop just to get through more deliveries an hour?
I think it is utterly ridiculous that captains get suspended for slow over rates. It punishes the fans TWICE! Find another way. Best players should be playing. #holder
The surface is starting to look a bit blotchy and worn, but it’s played very truly so far. Decent bounce throughout for both teams, which has helped bring about catches behind the wicket. (As have some horrible shots, mind you.) The footmarks might start to be a factor for Nathan Lyon today, who picked up a couple of wickets on his home(ish) ground here in Canberra.
Day four #AUSvSLpic.twitter.com/rMKHIUrG3G
Counting down, and we are ready to start day four of the inaugural Test at Manuka Oval. And we can call the experiment a success. Crowds so far of 8556 on the opening Friday, then 11,388 on the Saturday, and 8397 on the Sunday. Pretty good going in a small ground, and it has felt full and cheerful throughout.
Barring a lot of rain or a Sri Lankan batting performance for the ages, it should end today. The visiting team hasn’t lost a wicket yet, reaching 0 for 17 after Australia declared for the second time in the match late on the third day. But they’re missing a batsman, with Kusal Janith Perera concussed by Jhye Richardson in the first innings, and that first innings showed that once a wicket fell, a few tended to follow.
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