Australia handed out a crushing win against Sri Lanka in their own backyard, destroying them by an innings and 242 runs.
Australia won the 1st AUS vs. SL Test at Galle on Saturday, February 1, by an innings and 242 runs. In this match, Sri Lanka batted twice but went nowhere near the massive first-innings total that Australia put on the board to reach 654-6. Under stand-in captain Steve Smith, Australia notched their twelfth win in the WTC 2023-25 cycle.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, Australia wasted no time putting Sri Lankan bowlers under pressure, with Travis Head opting for aggressive shot selections to take the visitors past the 60-run mark in just 10 overs. Head’s fifty came up in just 35 balls as he fell to the bowling at 57 runs. However, he had set a great platform for Australia to launch their inning from. Usman Khawaja seemed largely unaffected by the Sri Lankan bowling while Marnus Labuschagne did not get any significant score since he got out on a score of 20 runs.
New bat Steve Smith partnered with Khawaja and compiled 266 runs for the third wicket. Smith, then, went on to reach the milestone of 10,000 Test runs and finished with a score of 141-not-out, which is his 35th Test century. Meanwhile, Khawaja was batting for his maiden double century. Australia’s 6 declared for 654 saw Josh Inglis, the debutant, also join the century club.
Sri Lanka managed to score only 165 runs against Australia. Dinesh Chandimal was the only one who felt at ease during this innings and made a fifty. The Australian spinners, especially Kuhnemann, fancied themselves against the Sri Lankans.
Now, in the second inning, Sri Lanka fought back more aggressively, however they could not come anywhere near the score of Australia and got bundled out for 247 runs. The only half-centurion of the host was Jeffrey Vandersay and Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon combined for eight wickets.
