Player of the Match
Player of the Match

That's all from Galle, but there is more cricket happening in Bulawayo and Chester-le-Street. You can read the Galle report here. Cheers from me, Sidharth Monga

Tony Greig hosts the presentation ceremony. Tillakaratne Dilshan is the first one to come up. He says, "They played well. Especially in the first innings they batted really well. I feel if we had got to even 200-225 in the first innings, we would have had a good tight match. Mahela and Mathews batted really well, good fightback, unfortunately Mahela got out to the new ball. Expected the pitch to turn, but not so much from the first day. But Test cricket is not easy, just one of the challenges of Test cricket."

The Man-of-the-Match couldn't have been easy, but for his innings on the first day, it is Michael Hussey. "It is a pretty pleasing test match, considering the conditions. We adapted pretty well. Probably the driest wicket I have played on to start with, but that is the good thing about international. You just adapt to different conditions. A very satisfactory Test win for us."

Michael Clarke walks up now. He says, "My first as captain, so very excited. The way we played throughout was spot on. As the days went on, the wicket died a bit, and the pace came off. So the most important part was the new ball, and our bowlers executed the plans with both new balls. The debutants did a fantastic job. Very special."

"Can't happen often that the bowler with the second most wickets in an attack is an opening batsman. Wasn't Wilfred Rhodes an opener too? But he wasn't a fast bowler." Travis, Manoj Prabhakar might have done that. Watto himself might have done that before. Mohammad Hafeez opened the bowling and batting recently on a turner in the West Indies

Lovely scenes of celebration. There's something on the faces after you win an away Test that no other look can match, not even a World Cup win. It is some special kind of satisfaction

A hundredth Test win for Ricky Ponting, easily a record, and a staggering one at that (for a perspective on that number, India reached 100 Test wins in 2009, and surely there are a few other teams who are yet to win even that many). First Test win for Clarke as captain. And Australia have now beaten Sri Lanka six times in Sri Lanka, joint-best along with Pakistan. Ryan Harris has taken out two stumps to keep with him. He bowled superbly. Mahela and Mathews fought and fought, but this was always going to be a mountain too high. Sri Lanka will look back at the number of loose balls their spinners bowled to the Aussie tail, who applied themselves and cashed in on the loose ones

95.5
W
Lyon to Lakmal, OUT, There it is. A big win for Australia. Lakmal gives him the charge, never gets to the pitch of it, and heaves, seemingly over mid-on. Johnson, though, runs back, and takes it almost over his shoulder

RAS Lakmal c Johnson b Lyon 5 (15m 9b 1x4 0x6) SR: 55.55

Australia tour of Sri Lanka 2011 News

  • SLC gets official warning for Galle pitch

    The ICC has given Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) an official warning for preparing a "poor" pitch in Galle for the first Test against Australia that was played from August 31-September 3

  • 'My focus was on how I was going to score off every ball'

    Mahela Jayawardene's recent fourth-innings hundred in Galle was one for the ages, produced over nearly four hours in conditions favouring the bowling side. He looks back at what went into the knock

  • Plane tales from the hills

    Galle to Colombo? Our fearless correspondent takes an unconventional mode of transport and lives to tell the tale

  • The left-hand advantage in Sri Lanka

    Overseas left-hand batsmen have been far more successful in Sri Lanka than their right-hand counterparts

  • Johnson 'hasn't lost his mojo' - Clarke

    Australia's captain, Michael Clarke, does not believe Mitchell Johnson is past his best, but he has conceded the selectors will face a tough decision on which fast men to play in the first Test in South Africa

Sri Lanka 4th innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st0TM DilshanNT Paranavitana
2nd15TM DilshanKC Sangakkara
3rd37DPMD JayawardeneKC Sangakkara
4th11DPMD JayawardeneTT Samaraweera
5th5DPMD JayawardeneHAPW Jayawardene
6th142DPMD JayawardeneAD Mathews
7th11S RandivAD Mathews
8th21HMRKB HerathAD Mathews
9th7RAS LakmalAD Mathews
10th4UWMBCA WelegedaraRAS Lakmal