Dinesh Chandimal achieved something rarely seen on Saturday — a forgettable moment for an ex-captain and a record low in Sri Lanka’s proud Test history.
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Here are the quick hits from day four of the first Test in Galle.
1. Working 5-9
Anyone who’s seen Sri Lanka’s tail “bat” before knew Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Mendis were the only things standing between Australia and a quick finish to the first innings as day four started.
They added 20 runs in the morning before Mendis holed out to Matthew Kuhnemann, kicking off an almighty collapse.
Chandimal followed, trapped LBW while reverse sweeping, as he looked a changed man once he was forced to protect the tail. And when Prabath Jayasuriya sprinted past a Kuhnemann delivery and was summarily stumped, Sri Lanka had lost 3-0 in 13 balls.
Sri Lanka’s tailenders mostly showed no resistance in both innings outside of Jeffrey Vandersay. (Getty Images: Buddhika Weerasinghe)
By the time Nishan Peiris and Jeffrey Vandersay fell, it was 5-9 in just 26 balls. All out for 165, trailing by 489 runs and forced into the ignominy of batting again straight away.
Sri Lanka’s tail provided a little more resistance in the second innings courtesy of an impressive half-century from Vandersay.
The other three members of Sri Lanka’s last four batters combined for seven runs.
2. The worst kind of dismissal
Dimuth Karunaratne has been a stalwart of Sri Lankan cricket for more than a decade.
He has the fourth most runs in Tests for the nation and will become the seventh Sri Lankan to play 100 Tests in the second match of this series.
But his second-innings dismissal on day four was as bad as it gets.
Having already watched opening partner Oshada Fernando get trapped plumb LBW by Mitchell Starc and take a review with him at the start of the third over, Karunaratne faced up to off-spinner Todd Murphy to start the fourth.
Angling in from around the wicket to the left-hander with a ball only 18 deliveries old, Murphy fired one in just outside off stump and Karunaratne confidently propped onto his front foot.
But he forgot to use his bat, and the near enough to brand-new ball skidded straight on into the off stump, leaving the opener looking silly and feeling sick.
3. Chandimal falls twice in the same session
Dinesh Chandimal put up resistance but batting with a vulnerable tail clearly was his undoing in the first innings. (Getty Images: Buddhika Weerasinghe)
Australia picked up an incredible eight wickets in the opening session, having taken the last five to wrap up the first innings and adding three more in Sri Lanka’s second by the time lunch was called.
The speed of Sri Lanka’s collapse in the first innings and then the haste in which its openers got out in the second makes you wonder whether Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka’s number three, had even removed his pads in between the two innings.
Just 31 deliveries took place between Chandimal’s first-innings dismissal for 72 and his first ball of the second innings after Oshada Fernando was trapped LBW by Mitchell Starc.
Chandimal combined well with fellow former Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews, putting on a partnership of 69 runs.
Unfortunately, he fell on the stroke of the lunch break after being caught at bat-pad by Travis Head off the bowling of Nathan Lyon.
That meant Chandimal was dismissed twice in the same session of cricket — and by the same bowler as well.
4. Sri Lanka finally gets some DRS luck
After having no luck with the review system on the opening day, Sri Lanka finally got the rub of the green on day four, even if it came far too late.
Kusal Mendis was given out LBW after missing a sweep shot against Matthew Kuhnemann, and sent it upstairs despite being struck in front of middle stump.
There was no question whether Mendis had been hit in line, or whether the ball was going on to hit the stumps — but TV umpire Joel Wilson was concerned with something else.
Wilson requested multiple replays to try and figure out whether the ball had made contact with either Mendis’s bat or his gloves on the way through to the pad.
There were disruptions on snicko before, during and after the ball passed the bat. (Supplied: Channel Seven)
After the vision proved to be inconclusive, he called for the assistance of Ultra Edge.
There were several murmurs which showed up on Ultra Edge during the entire trajectory of the ball, and one happened to come just as the ball passed by Mendis’s bat, which Wilson deemed to be enough evidence to overturn the on-field call.
The Mendis incident came after Angelo Mathews was lucky to survive his own LBW shout.
Mathews was struck in front of off stump after missing a reverse sweep and, despite a big appeal, Australia opted against sending the call upstairs.
Soon afterwards, replays showed that ball tracking would have returned the dreaded three reds for Mathews.
5. A record Test loss for Sri Lanka
It was truly a Test match to forget for Sri Lanka in every sense of the word.
Australia’s final winning margin was by an innings and 242 runs, making it the heaviest defeat for Sri Lanka in its 43-year Test history.
The previous worst came against India in 2017, when it was defeated by an innings and 239 runs in Mohali.
On that occasion, India made 8-574 and then rolled Sri Lanka for 174 and 178 in its two innings, with Ravindra Jadeja coming close to outscoring Sri Lanka after scoring 175 not out.
Usman Khawaja looked set to outscore Sri Lanka in both innings before a late flurry from Jeffrey Vandersay allowed the home side to post a score of 247 in the second innings.
