Australia have set Sri Lanka the challenging target of 379 for victory in the opening Test in Galle.
Resuming
on day three after a two-hour rain delay, Australia added 95 to their
overnight score of 6-115 to be dismissed for 210 in their second
innings.
Sri Lanka will have to beat the highest fourth innings
total (210) and highest successful fourth-innings chase score (96) at
Galle to claim an unlikely win on a bowler-friendly pitch.
Left-arm
spinner Rangana Herath (5-79) led the way for the Sri Lankans with the
ball while Michael Clarke’s 60, made on Thursday, was the highest score
for Australia.
Mitchell Johnson (8) was the first to go on Friday
when he top-edged a sweep off Herath for wicketkeeper Prasanna
Jayawardene to easily claim the catch.
Usman Khawaja (26) and
Ryan Harris (23) then put on 40 runs for the eighth wicket in a valuable
stand before Khawaja was trapped LBW by Chanaka Welegedara, who had
figures of 3.1 overs, three maidens, two wickets for no runs at that
stage.
Harris’ cameo came to an end when he offered Herath a
simple caught and bowled for the Sri Lankan left-arm spinner to claim
his fifth Test match five-wicket haul.
Debutants Trent Copeland
(23no) and Nathan Lyon (13) put on 32 in quick time for the last wicket
before Lyon was caught trying to loft Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne
Dilshan down the ground.
Earlier, play was delayed by two hours
after heavy overnight and morning rain left the ground under covers well
past the scheduled 10am (1430AEST) start.
The pitch also
appeared to suffer some water damage despite the heavy covers over the
entire ground, with groundstaff at one point using a handheld hair-drier
on affected portions of the wicket to dry them.
