Off-spinner Dilruwan Perera starred for Sri Lanka taking his maiden 10-wicket haul as the Lions recorded a memorable 229-run win over Australia on day three in the second Test match which concluded today at Galle International Stadium.


Man-of-the-match, Perera took 6 for 70 in the second innings as Sri Lanka dismissed the Kangaroos for 183 on Saturday afternoon to wrap up proceedings and bag the ‘Warne-Muralitharan’ trophy for the first time in the history after its inception in 2007.

The off-spinner ended with career-best figures of 10 for 99 and became only the fourth Sri Lankan spinner to take 10 wickets in a Test match. He even played a gem of an innings of 64 to top-score yesterday in the 2nd innings to set a near-impossible target of 413 for the visitors.

This is Sri Lanka’s second Test-series win over Australia after 1999. Sri Lanka won the first Test in Pallekelle by 106 and now leads the series 2-0 with the final game to be played at SSC grounds from 13th August.

Earlier in the first session, David Warner and Steve Smith started off aggresively doubling their overnight score in a couple of overs. They used the feet excellently to get to the pitch of the ball and amass boundaries. Perera struck gold when his arm-delivery hit the front pad of Warner and was given LBW, even a review did not save him.

A few overs later, Smith was not given caught when the ball popped into the hands of the short-leg fielder which the umpire denied but the replays showed a clear deviation off the bat and the Australian skipper had to walk back disappointingly.

Marsh offered no stroke to a Lakshan Sandakan delivery which spun sharply and struck him well outside off-stump but skipper Mathews kept faith on his young bowler to go for the review, which went in favour of the Sri Lankans.

Text Commentary – Day 3

Just before the lunch break, Adam Voges played a terrible reverse-sweep only to be bowled around his legs as the hosts bagged 4 wickets in the opening session.

After lunch it took only 30 minutes for the home team to spin out the Aussies. Mitchell Starc smashed a few lusty boundaries before being bowled by Herath while Hazelwood gave a simple return catch to Perera to complete the 10-wicket haul.

The final nail in the coffin was put in the 51st over when short-leg fielder, Kusal Mendis managed to catch Peter Nevill, who flicked Herath off his pads short of his crease showing excellent reflexes.

“It feels great. The way we played in the last two games it was brilliant. We were pretty clinical in the second Test especially. I was under a bit of pressure going into the toss. The first hurdle was to win the toss and then get a good score on the board because the wicket was always going to get worse. Once again it was a special performance by Kusal Mendis – getting us to 281. Special mention to Dilruwan after having a quiet first Test. He backed his potential and came back really hard. He was one bowler who the Australians found it really hard to score off, especially on this track.” Angelo Mathews said after the match.

Full Scorecard

Batsmen Dismissal Runs Balls
Dimuth Karunarathne  c Burns b Starc 0 1
Kaushal Silva  c Nevill b Starc 5 16
Kusal Janith Perera c Smith b Lyon 49 82
Kusal Mendis c Nevill b Starc 86 137
Angelo Mathews  c Nevill b Marsh 54 65
Dinesh Chandimal  c Khawaja b Hazelwood 5 14
Dhananjaya De Silva  LBW b Holland 37 63
Dilruwan Perera LBW b Lyon 16 32
Rangana Herath  b Starc 14 19
Lakshan Sandakan  b Starc 1 7
Vishwa Fernando Not Out 0 4
Extras (14) TOTAL 281 (73.1 overs)

Fall of wickets :  1-0 (Karunaratne, 0.1 ov), 2-9 (Silva, 4.4 ov), 3-117 (MDKJ Perera, 31.2 ov), 4-184 (Mendis, 45.3 ov), 5-199 (Chandimal, 48.5 ov), 6-224 (Mathews, 56.4 ov), 7-259 (MDK Perera, 67.1 ov), 8-265 (de Silva, 68.6 ov), 9-274 (Sandakan, 71.4 ov), 10-281 (Herath, 73.1 ov)

Bowler Overs Maidens Runs Wickets
Mitchell Starc  16.1 7 44 5
Josh Hazelwood 15 3 51 1
Nathan Lyon 18 1 78 2
Mitchell Marsh 9 0 30 1
Jon Holland 15 0 64 1
Batsmen Dismissal Runs Balls
 Joe Burns c K Perera b Fernando 0 2
 David Warner c Mathews b Perera 42 41
 Usman Khawaja b Perera 11 44
 Steve Smith b Herath 5 10
 Adam Voges c Karunarathne b Herath  8 28
 Mitchell Marsh c Karunarathne b Sandakan 27 42
 Peter Nevill LBW b Herath 0 1
 Mitchell Starc LBW b Herath 0 1
 Nathan Lyon c Mendis b Perera 4 10
 Josh Hazelwood c Mathews b Perera 3 16
Jon Holland Not Out 0 5
Extras (6) TOTAL 106 (33.2 overs)

Fall of wickets :  1-0 (Burns, 0.2 ov), 2-54 (Warner, 13.3 ov), 3-59 (Khawaja, 15.6 ov), 4-59 (Smith, 16.1 ov), 5-80 (Voges, 24.4 ov), 6-80 (Nevill, 24.5 ov), 7-80 (Starc, 24.6 ov), 8-85 (Lyon, 27.2 ov), 9-89 (Hazlewood, 31.2 ov), 10-106 (Marsh, 33.2 ov)

Bowler Overs Maidens Runs Wickets
Vishwa Fernando  2 0 16 1
Rangana Herath 11 2 35 4
Dilruwan Perera 15 4 29 4
Angelo Mathews 3 1 13 0
Dhananjaya De Silva 2 1 7 0
Lakshan Sandakan 0.2 0 0 1
Batsmen Dismissal Runs Balls
Kaushal Silva  c Smith b Hazelwood 2 6
Dimuth Karunarathne  c Marsh b Starc 7 8
Kusal Janith Perera b Lyon 35 38
Kusal Mendis c Nevill b Starc 7 14
Angelo Mathews  b Lyon 47 69
Dinesh Chandimal  c Nevill b Starc 13 29
Dhananjaya De Silva  c Nevill b Starc 34 48
Dilruwan Perera  b Starc 64 89
Rangana Herath  b Holland 26 55
Lakshan Sandakan  Not Out 0 0
Vishwa Fernando c Voges b Starc 0 1
Extras (2) TOTAL 237 (59.3 overs)

Fall of wickets :  1-5 (Silva, 1.6 ov), 2-9 (Karunaratne, 2.2 ov), 3-31 (Mendis, 6.1 ov), 4-79 (MDKJ Perera, 15.3 ov), 5-98 (Chandimal, 23.2 ov), 6-121 (Mathews, 31.4 ov), 7-172 (de Silva, 39.6 ov), 8-233 (Herath, 58.6 ov), 9-237 (MDK Perera, 59.2 ov), 10-237 (Fernando, 59.3 ov)

Bowler Overs Maidens Runs Wickets
Mitchell Starc  12.3 1 50 6
Josh Hazelwood 9 3 13 1
Nathan Lyon 19 2 80 2
Jon Holland 10 1 69 1
Adam Voges 1 0 4 0
Mitchell Marsh 4 1 7 0
Steve Smith 4 0 13 0
Batsmen Dismissal Runs Balls
David Warner LBW b D Perera 41 37
Joe Burns c De Silva b Herath 2 4
 Nathan Lyon c Silva b D Perera 0 7
 Usman Khawaja b D Perera 0 1
 Steve Smith c Silva b D Perera  30 58
 Adam Voges  b D Perera 28 70
 Mitchell Marsh LBW b Sandakan 18 39
 Peter Nevill Run Out (Mendis) 24 38
 Mitchell Starc b Herath 26 31
 Josh Hazelwood c & b D Perera 7 20
 Jon Holland Not Out 0 2
Extras (7) TOTAL 183 (50.1 overs)

Fall of wickets :  1-3 (Burns, 0.6 ov), 2-10 (Lyon, 3.3 ov), 3-10 (Khawaja, 3.4 ov), 4-61 (Warner, 11.2 ov), 5-80 (Smith, 19.6 ov),6-119 (Marsh, 32.5 ov), 7-123 (Voges, 35.6 ov), 8-164 (Starc, 44.3 ov), 9-181 (Hazlewood, 49.4 ov), 10-183 (Nevill, 50.1 ov)

Bowler Overs Maidens Runs Wickets
Rangana Herath 19.1 1 74 2
Dilruwan Perera 23 5 70 6
Lakshan Sandakan 6 1 30 1
Dhananjaya De Silva 2 0 2 0