The roller-coaster of a match between Sri Lanka and Australia finally ended after the hosts defeated Australia by 106 runs.
After being dismissed for a paltry total of 117, the home team staged a brilliant fightback to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The Sri Lankan bowlers did a brilliant job by restricting the visitors for only 203 runs. Inspired by the bowlers the Sri Lankan batsmen batted brilliantly in the second innings and scored 353 runs to set the visitors a good target of 268 runs on a pitch which was looking good for the spinners.
Young batsman Kusal Mendis played a brilliant innings of 176 to help his team post a good total. Sri Lankan spinners Rangana Herath and Lakshan Sandakan, who took four wickets apiece in the first innings, once again wreaked havoc on the Aussie batsmen and took 5 and 3 wickets respectively.
Chasing the target, the visitors started poorly and kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. Peter Neville and Steve O’Keefe batted for almost 30 overs to raise some hopes but then Dhananjaya de Silva ended the partnership by dismissing Neville. Herath ended the match by dismissing O’Keefe.
Let us see how the twitterati reacted to this match:
I'm close to crying. That's how much test cricket means to me. Almost lost hope considering our recent form.. #SLvAUS
— Muzy (@toysoldier92) July 30, 2016
Ohhhh BJ… Cmon…you haven't given up have you #SLvAUS pic.twitter.com/BA0gTIRo8m
— Russel Arnold (@RusselArnold69) July 30, 2016
SL have lost 4 out of their last 5 Tests. To come back from that and have the No. 1 ranked Test side in this position is fantastic! #SLvAUS
— Island Cricket (@IslandCricket) July 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/alokpi/status/759300641231556608?lang=en
This is the first defeat for Steve Smith as a Test captain. #SLvAUS pic.twitter.com/pHHZAsQvVA
— CricTracker (@Cricketracker) July 30, 2016
Fantastic from SL to win after being bowled out for 117 in the first innings #SLvAUS
— zainab abbas (@ZAbbasOfficial) July 30, 2016
A huge but brilliant win by @OfficialSLC !!! #SLvAUS
Our first loss in a year.. We need to work out how to play in Asia!— Dean Jones AM (@ProfDeano) July 30, 2016
Incredible turnaround by young Sri Lanka after just 117 in 1st innings. Also shows how world's best Test teams travel poorly now #SLvAUS
— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) July 30, 2016
The last 154 balls of the Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia went like this #SLvAUS #Cricket pic.twitter.com/kWbYySs7Tb
— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) July 30, 2016
First time in Test history – 17 overs without a run! #SLvAus
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) July 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/MitchJohnson398/status/759310911312048132?lang=en
https://twitter.com/motherrr/status/759323569943896065?lang=en
Australia didn't score a run for a world record 25.4 overs. Geoff Boycott is too excited to comment #SLvAUS pic.twitter.com/Py1bAmGKc9
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) July 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/nMeeDiN/status/759322983945035776?lang=en