Australia insist they didn’t bat too long as rain dominates day three

Galle: Bright sunshine appeared on what should have been the final session on day three of the first Test, making for a resplendent sight as the UNESCO heritage-listed Dutch fort stood impassively in the distance.

The only trouble was that play had already been abandoned as a result of two monsoonal downpours late morning and mid-afternoon, which left Australia with two days to take Sri Lanka’s remaining 15 wickets in this match.

Mitchell Starc leaves the ground as rain stops play during day three of the first test cricket match betwe.Credit: AP

Rain and Dinesh Chandimal (63 not out) have emerged as the major roadblocks to the Australian push for victory. Left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann spun one furiously past Sri Lanka’s advancing captain Dhanajaya de Silva, after Kamindu Mendis glanced Mitchell Starc into Alex Carey’s gloves.

But Chandimal, who boasts an enviable record with the bat in Galle and carted the Australians for a double century here in 2022, found a neat balance between attack and defence to frustrate the visitors before rain arrived at 5-136 in reply to the visitors’ enormous 6-654 declared.

The showers cleared and a 2.50pm re-start was planned, only for apocalyptic clouds to brew in the distance and have the ground staff scrambling to replace covers they had drained and folded only minutes before. Play was ultimately abandoned around 3.30pm local time.

Australia’s spin triumvirate of Kuhnemann, Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy all had their moments, although Murphy will be annoyed that a vociferous lbw appeal against Chandimal from around the wicket was rendered moot by a no-ball.

Kuhnemann’s threatening spell, finding occasionally sharp turn while also threatening the stumps with balls that carried on with the arm, demonstrated why it had been so vital for him to recover quickly from a compound fracture of his right thumb in the BBL. He denied that Australia had batted too long on the first two days.

“Not at all,” Kuhnemann said. “I think the boys batted beautifully and you saw today there was a bit more spin – the first couple of days are always the best time to bat. So there’s still two more days to go, time will tell.

“There’s definitely a bit more spin now, it’s just about how we adapt to conditions with the game moving forward, but hopefully it starts to spin a bit more. It is still nice to bat on, as you’ve seen they’ve played some beautiful shots.

“We’ll come together tonight, myself, Gaz and Murph and come up with a plan and stick to that and that can hopefully work to win this game.”

Matt Kuhnemann gets Dhananjaya de Silva.Credit: AP

At breaks in play, the young batting allrounder Cooper Connolly has been delivering his own left-arm spin on a centre wicket, but his craft is nowhere near as developed as Kuhnemann’s.

Australia will bring another young spinner into the fold when Tanveer Sangha joins the white ball squad for their Sri Lanka training camp ahead of the Champions Trophy.

Acting captain Steve Smith did not call upon Beau Webster in the morning session, and gave Starc a decent spell first up from the Fort End.

Lyon had looked the most likely to break through in the early overs, challenging Chandimal from around the wicket with some deliveries turning back and others carrying on towards Smith at slip. One such delivery fell just short of Smith’s clutches, and another was edged between first slip and Carey before scuttling away to the boundary.

Kamindu, a popular choice in some Test teams of the year for 2024 as Sri Lanka’s leading scorer, did not get much chance to make an impact as his glide down the leg side was too fine to avoid Carey. Starc, who had dismissed Ben Stokes in similarly innocuous fashion at a tense moment of the 2023 Ashes Test at Headingley, could not believe his luck.

That left the Sri Lankans a precarious 4-67, but Dhananjaya played with good attacking intent alongside Chandimal in their attempt to mount some sort of response to Australia. Chandimal was particularly strong through the covers, while also sweeping and reversing after the fashion of Usman Khawaja and Josh Inglis.

Dhananjaya had punched consecutive boundaries from Murphy’s first over of the day, and seemed eager to accelerate further.

It was this enthusiasm that helped bring about his downfall. Smith brought the field up and Kuhnemann twirled down a delivery that was high enough to attract a charge but short enough to spin well past the bat.

“That was probably down to Smudge,” Kuhnemann said. “He made the field adjustment, he brought mid off up and brought mid on even further up and around.

A very wet day in Galle.Credit: AP

“His message is for me to bowl my best ball and do that consistently and then we come up with a plan, but that was all him - credit to Smudge for that wicket. Tactically he’s a genius.”

Kusal Mendis, who had announced himself to the world by cuffing a century off Australia in Kandy in 2016, was giving a couple of warning shots early on as Kuhnemann found sharp spin and bounce, including one delivery that disturbed the surface and was taken at shoulder height by Carey.

Proceedings were cut short by heavy showers that rattled the grandstand and sent spectators scampering for whatever cover they could find.

It had already been another frustrating day for 19-year-old Sam Konstas, who was left back at the team hotel for the second day in a row with illness, depriving him of the chance to use time in the nets to gain more familiarity with these climes.