The second day’s play of the 3-day tour match between the Australia XI and the Sri Lankans saw Sri Lanka ending their 1st innings on a mere 176/5 at the Blundstone Arena in Hobart. The hosts ended the day 239 runs ahead of the visitors with 99/2 on the board in their 2nd innings.
The new opening pair for Sri Lanka, Dimuth Karunaratne and Lahiru Thirimanne resumed Sri Lanka’s 1st innings on Friday afternoon and went on to bat 14 more overs.
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The pair was separated in the 28th over by pacer Scot Boland as he dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne for 44, Sri Lanka’s highest score in this match. Thirimanne was also dismissed, by pacer Chris Termain for a slow 109-ball 32.
Sadeera Samarawickrama batted at number 4, instead of Kusal Mendis who is injured. He was dismissed cheaply for 11 runs. Skipper Dinesh Chandimal batting at number 3 scored 32 runs while Dhananjaya de Silva who scored just 14 runs batted at number 6. Both of them were dismissed courtesy the leg spin of all-rounder Marnus Labuschagne.
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Roshen Silva (36), batting at number 5, and wicket keeper Niroshan Dickwella (4) remained unbeaten as Sri Lanka finished their 75 overs on 176/5. As agreed by both teams, Sri Lankans had to declare their innings after the 75th over.
Unlike the Australians, the tourists maintained a very slow run-rate as they finished 140 runs behind the hosts. Dimuth Karunaratne was the only batsman with a strike-rate close to 50 while the run-rate read 2.34 when their innings ended.
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Australia XI batting in their 2nd innings, once again started swiftly as they ended the day on 99/2 in 26.1 overs. Matt Renshaw and skipper Joe Burns, one of whom is likely to open the batting for Australia in the 1st Test alongside Marcus Harris, failed to fire once again as they managed to score only 10 and 22 respectively. Dushmantha Chameera and Kasun Rajitha were the wicket-takers for Sri Lanka.
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Dushmantha Chameera was very expensive, despite picking up a wicket, giving away 28 runs in his 4 overs. Interestingly for Sri Lanka, Lahiru Thirimanne too bowled 3 overs of of his slow medium pacers.
