Hurt in the groin region by a delivery that rose sharply after pitching at short of full length, Rangana Herath was far from his best on Day Three of the third Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club. The dust puffed off the pitch and the ball turned, but he couldn't cause enough trouble to halt the Australian second-wicket pair of Steve Smith and Shaun Marsh, that held fort for 78.5 overs.
Herath had gone through 22 overs without any success. But once he managed to deceive Smith in flight and beat him in spin to get his first wicket of the match, it took him only 95 more balls to bag five more wickets and end Australia's innings at 379, 24 more than Sri Lanka's first innings total.
The Australian capitulation was much similar to what it has been throughout the series, an application-lacking batting show. After the record second-wicket partnership between Smith and Shaun, Australia lost their last nine wickets for 112 runs.
The pitch that couldn't cause much trouble to the visitors for nearly three sessions despite turning, had become devilish in the last 30 overs. Batsmen were beaten, and edges and bat-pads became a common feature.
Resuming the innings at innings at 316 for 4, Adam Voges fell early, trapped leg before wicket. The batsman wasn't too sure but was advised by his batting partner to avoid taking a review. Peter Nevill's stay at the crease was laborious. He had a tough time getting a hang of the turning deliveries, struggling his way to a 34-ball 14, before he was undone by a Dilruwan Perera slider.
The wicketkeeper-batsman had earlier received a reprieve via the review when he was given leg before wicket despite getting an inside edge. But he couldn't do much to trouble the scorers from there. The second time he was trapped leg before wicket, he couldn't get away despite taking a review.
While wickets kept tumbling from one end, Mitchell Marsh ensured Australia's safe passage past Sri Lanka's first innings total. The tall right-hander dealt well with the spinners and notched up his second Test fifty. Soon enough, however, offered a simple bat-pad catch at forward short leg to Kusal Mendis, and returned to the pavilion. There was very little resistance from the lower order as edges kept flying to the close-in fielders.
Lyon offered a simple bat-pad catch to Mendis off Perera, while Herara rounded off Australia's shambolic lower-order display by dismissing Holland, and bagging a six-wicket haul in the process. This was the seventh time the Sri Lankan spinner picked up five or more wickets in the last eight matches at the SSC, and the fifth instance against Australia (a record shared with Muttiah Muralitharan).
However, with the story-told-so-often about Australia's collapse against spin, there is also the story of Sri Lanka's top order that is lesser spoken of.
The hosts opted to send nightwatchman Dilruwan Perera, who has scored more than the Sri Lankan openers in the series, to open the innings with Dimuth Karunaratne. After carving a couple of fours in the first three balls, he was trapped leg before by Mitchell Starc, giving Sri Lanka a shaky start to their second innings.
The left-arm pacer, along with Nathan Lyon, continued to trouble Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva for five overs, but couldn't breakthrough again as the hosts reached 22 for 1 at Stumps.
Earlier in the day, Smith and Shaun consolidated Australia's position without much fuss. There weren't those over-the-top hits that Australia have often used to power their counter attack. They relied on rotating the strike by showing the kind of application their batsmen have lacked throughout the series, to steer Australia to 235 for 1 at lunch.
What the Australian duo didn't let go off were the poor deliveries. They drove it along the ground to send the ball past the boundary ropes every two to three overs to keep the scoreboard moving at a good pace.
Shaun was given a reprieve early in the day when Herath managed to induce an edge off the left-hander's bat, but Mathews dropped the ball at slips after getting one hand to it while diving to his left. From thereon, the southpaw played a chanceless innings to remain unbeaten on 110 after the morning session.
For most parts of the first hour, Shaun played the ball off the backfoot, allowing himself enough time to judge the turn and bounce. Smith, on the other hand, preferred going down the track to play the ball from the pitch of it. Even as the ball turned wide, the even nature of the pace didn't cause much trouble to the batsmen.
Shaun, who hogged majority of the strike, raced to his nineties much faster than his skipper. However, he turned cautious upon reaching that stage, with the left-hander getting beaten more often by the spinners. But once he swept Dilruwan's delivery outside leg for a boundary, he breathed a sigh of relief. The sweep brought up his fourth Test century, and second against Sri Lanka. The celebration of the landmark was sedate - an acknowledgement to the ecstatic dressing room by holding up his bat and helmet.
Smith, who reached the landmark a couple of overs later, celebrated in similar fashion. It was his 15th Test ton, and the seventh as captain, as a small section of the visiting crowd waved the Australian flag in joy.
The momentum shifted once the new ball was taken. In the third over, Shaun ended up leaving an innocuous delivery outside the offstump by Suranga Lakmal. However, the late decision to leave the ball resulted in him getting an inside edge, directing the ball towards the stumps.
Thirteen balls later, Smith was teased by Herath and ended up getting beaten by the turn. Kusal Perera whipped off the bails quickly to stump the Australian skipper and send him back to the pavilion as well.
Smith's 119 eclipsed Michael Clarke's 112- the previous best individual score by an Australian captain in Sri Lanka. The record stand, between Shaun and Smith, lasted 78.5 overs and yielded 246 runs for Australia. It was the highest ever partnership for the second wicket by Australia against Sri Lanka. It was also the highest partnership for any wicket in Asia since 2011.
With both the set men back in the hut, Mathews decided to place two close-in fielders. The demons in the pitch that seemed invisible during the second-wicket partnership emerged out of nowhere to leave Australian batsmen clueless against the spinners.
Moises Henriques, who was brought into the side for his batting abilities against spin, departed four overs later after he looked to reach the pitch of the ball, but was squarely beaten by a turning delivery from Herath. Kusal completed the formality behind the stumps. Voges and Mitchell had difficulty in dealing with the spinners, often getting beaten by the turn and bounce. Yet, they managed to stay the wicket while heading in for Tea.
The enthralling final session saw Sri Lanka claw their way back to an extent, even as Australia ended Day 3 of the dead-rubber, marginally ahead of the hosts.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 355 (Dinesh Chandimal 132, Dhananjaya de Silva 129; Mitchell Starc 5-63, Nathan Lyon 3-110) and 22/1 trail Australia 379 (Shaun Marsh 130, Steve Smith, 119; Rangana Herath 6-81) by 2 runs
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