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| Sunday, 11 July 2004 |
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Sri Lanka claw their way back - 184/2 Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Australia CAIRNS, July 10 - Marvan Atapattu played a captain's knock of 75 not out as Sri Lanka came up with their best batting display on the current tour of Australia to end the second day of the second cricket Test on 184 for two wickets in reply to Australia's first innings of 517 at the Cazalays Stadium here today. After their bowlers spearheaded by Lasith Malinga and Upul Chandana had subjected the last seven Australian wickets to tumble for just 63 runs, Sri Lanka's batsmen continued the good work to finish 333 runs behind with eight wickets in hand. Three days of the Test remain. The score would have looked even healthier had not Kumar Sangakkara thrown his wicket away with an injudicious shot, 38 minutes away from stumps. The brilliant left-hander was left to rue his stroke that brought about his downfall after he and his captain had all but got on top of the Australian bowling and had them desperate for a wicket. With a century beckoning him, Sangakkara played the most dreadful of shots to fall into the trap set for him. Having twice lofted Warne for boundaries to long on, Ponting posted Gillespie in that position and Sangakkara none the wiser fell for the sucker punch. He danced down the track and played the ball exactly to where the fielder was positioned and paid a heavy price. It was poor cricket on his part and no amount of shaking of the head on the way to the pavilion would compensate for his lack of forethought. Maybe he will learn. Sangakkara's dismissal ended a record second wicket stand of 138 with Atapattu. The previous highest for Sri Lanka against Australia was 92 between Roshan Mahanma and Asanka Gurusinha at the SSC in 1992. While the Atapattu-Sangakkara stand flourished the Australian attack which had been dominant in the series was made to look ordinary in the best of batting conditions. Sangakkara was in his element coming down the track to Warne and lofting him over mid-on and when he pitched short he either cut him or swept him for boundaries. His knock of 74 in 160 minutes off 114 balls contained eight graceful fours. Atapattu played the perfect anchor role shutting up one end after reaching his half-century and allowing his partner to do the scoring. Sangakkara overtook his captain at 52 and sped to 74 while Atapattu remained anchored on that score for quite awhile. The pair came together after Gillespie had achieved an early breakthrough for Australia by snaring the wicket of Sanath Jayasuriya for 13 in the fourth over. Jayasuriya defending off the back foot was caught brilliantly by a diving Gilchrist in front of first slip. Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene played out the remaining 38 minutes without any further mishap. Atapattu's unbeaten 75 scored off 167 balls comprised 11 fours and Jayawardene was 9 not out. Sri Lanka came back strongly into the Test after being completely outplayed on the opening day to contain them to a total of 517, when at one time it looked as if they would score well over 600. Australia's capitulation was due to a combination of aggressive batting and tight bowling which, eventually paid off for the visitors as the home team collapsed from an imposing 454-3. The damage for Australia was done by the flat leg-spin of Chandana, who grabbed only his second five-for in an innings haul in a 12-Test career, and young fast bowler Malinga who ended up with four wickets for 149 runs to take his series tally to 10 wickets - not a bad start at all for a newcomer. It was Malinga who achieved the initial breakthrough when he had yesterday's big century-maker Justin Langer caught head high in the slips by Jayawardene for 162 as early as the sixth over of the day. The left-hander attempted an ambitious drive outside his stumps and only succeeded in getting an edge. He batted for 412 minutes and faced 284 balls hitting 22 fours. His dismissal ended a 101-run partnership for the third wicket with Damien Martyn who became the first of Chandana's five victims. Having survived a confident leg before decision in the previous over of Chandana, Martyn fell the next over for 97, agonizingly three short of what would have been his eight Test hundred. He batted 160 minutes and faced 123 balls hitting 13 fours. Darren Lehmann batted as though he was going to catch a train racing to his third half-century of the series off just 55 balls (9 fours) before lofting a catch to long-off. Simon Katich was bowled playing across the line for one and of the recognised batsmen only Adam Gilchrist batted with any assurance scoring 35 off 33 balls with two sixes and two fours before Malinga snared him by having him caught behind by Kaluwitharana going for an superfluous drive to end the innings. In between Chandana picked up the wickets of Warne and Kasprowicz, having both caught and Malinga forced Gillespie to edge a catch behind. Chandana, who went wicketless for 73 runs in 15 overs on the opening day, returned excellent figures of 5 for 36 off 11 overs in an unchanged spell today. The only previous occasion he took five wickets in a Test innings was on his debut against Pakistan at Dhaka in 1998-99 when he had 6 for 179. AUSTRALIA - 1ST INNINGS
(overnight 370-2)
J. Langer c Jayawardene b Malinga 162
M. Hayden c Jayasuriya b Samaraweera 117
R. Ponting c Atapattu b Malinga 22
D. Martyn lbw b Chandana 97
D. Lehmann c Sangakkara b Chandana 50
S. Katich b Chandana 1
A. Gilchrist c Kaluwitharana b Malinga 35
S. Warne c Samaraweera b Chandana 2
J. Gillespie c Kaluwitharana b Malinga 1
M. Kasprowicz c Atapattu b Chandana 9
G. McGrath not out 0
EXTRAS (W-4, NB-7, LB-3, B-7) 21
TOTAL (all out, 124.2 overs) 517
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-255, 2-291, 3-392, 4-454, 5-462,
6-469, 7-474, 8-475, 9-485.
BOWLING: Vaas 27-2-102-0,
Zoysa 19-5-72-0,
Samaraweera 17-3-55-1,
Malinga 29.2-2-149-4 (W-4, NB-7),
Chandana 26.2-2-109-5,
Jayasuriya 6-0-20-0.
SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS
S. Jayasuriya c Gilchrist b Gillespie 13
M. Atapattu not out 75
K. Sangakkara c Gillespie b Warne 74
M. Jayawardene not out 9
Extras (B-1, NB-6, W-1, LB-5) 13
TOTAL (for two wickets, 53 overs) 184
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-18, 2-156.
TO BAT: T. Samaraweera, T. Dilshan, R. Kaluwitharana,
U. Chandana, C. Vaas, N. Zoysa, L. Malinga.
BOWLING: McGrath 11-3-23-0 (NB-3),
Gillespie 17-3-57-1 (W-1),
Kasprowicz 12-3-39-0 (NB-3),
Warne 13-1-59-1.
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