The star-studded Australia summed up first Test against Sri Lanka within three days with an emphatic 10-wicket victory at the Galle International Cricket Stadium on Friday (July 1).
Veteran spinner Nathan Lyon and Travis Head snared four wickets each to bundle out Sri Lanka for a paltry 113 in the second innings which meant Australia needed just five runs for victory. Riding on this stunning win, Australia have consolidated their spot at the summit of the World Test Championship (WTC) standings.
Australia are at the top of the table with their win percentage at 77.78 while Sri Lanka have slipped to the sixth spot, with a win percentage of 47.62.
South Africa are at second spot while India, who will square off against England in the rescheduled fifth Test starting on Friday, are at the third spot.
Pakistan and West Indies are at the fourth and fifth spot, respectively.
Earlier, after defeating New Zealand 3-0 in the three-match Test series, England had moved to the seventh place while defending champions New Zealand slipped to the eighth spot.
Bangladesh are at the ninth place with win percentage of 13.33.
New Zealand had won the WTC in the last cycle after defeating India in the final at Southampton.
Meanwhile, taking about the first Test between Australia and Sri Lanka, the visitors resumed the play on the third day with their first innings as skipper Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon walked out to bat on a scorching day a day after the wild weather wreaked havoc and utterly destroyed the infrastructure of the stadium.
Sri Lanka right-arm fast-medium Asitha Fernando cleaned up Cummins in the second over of the day and in the next three deliveries did the same to Australia’s N0.11 Mitchell Swepson. Australia took a lead of 109 runs in the first innings with the fifties from Usman Khawaja (71) and Cameron Green (77) making the difference.
Australian spinners comprising Lyon, Swepson and part-timer Travis Head combined together to dismantle Sri Lanka’s second innings in just 22.5 overs. After Sri Lankan openers Pathum Nissanka (14) and Dimuth Karunaratne (23) started on a decent note with 37 runs to their partnership, Lyon made his presence count for Australia. The off-spinner got the better of Karunaratne for the second time and Swepson trapped Nissanka before the wickets for lbw.
Lyon and Swepson continued to cause the damage by getting the wickets of Kusal Mendis and Oshada Fernando respectively. Head chipped in with the wickets of Dhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal in the 19th over. Lyon dismissed Ramesh Mendis and Niroshan Dickwella to finish with figures of 4/31.
Head picked the final two scalps to register career-best numbers of 4/10 in Test cricket. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 113 and Australia were left to chase a minuscule score of 10. David Warner took just four deliveries off Ramesh Mendis, hitting a four and a six to romp Australia to a 10-wicket triumph.
