Australia insist they didn’t bat too long as rain dominates day three

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“There’s definitely a bit more spin now, it’s just about how we adapt to conditions with the game moving forward, but hopefully it starts to spin a bit more. It is still nice to bat on, as you’ve seen they’ve played some beautiful shots.

“We’ll come together tonight, myself, Gaz and Murph and come up with a plan and stick to that and that can hopefully work to win this game.”

Matt Kuhnemann gets Dhananjaya de Silva.Credit: AP

At breaks in play, the young batting allrounder Cooper Connolly has been delivering his own left-arm spin on a centre wicket, but his craft is nowhere near as developed as Kuhnemann’s.

Australia will bring another young spinner into the fold when Tanveer Sangha joins the white ball squad for their Sri Lanka training camp ahead of the Champions Trophy.

Acting captain Steve Smith did not call upon Beau Webster in the morning session, and gave Starc a decent spell first up from the Fort End.

Lyon had looked the most likely to break through in the early overs, challenging Chandimal from around the wicket with some deliveries turning back and others carrying on towards Smith at slip. One such delivery fell just short of Smith’s clutches, and another was edged between first slip and Carey before scuttling away to the boundary.

Kamindu, a popular choice in some Test teams of the year for 2024 as Sri Lanka’s leading scorer, did not get much chance to make an impact as his glide down the leg side was too fine to avoid Carey. Starc, who had dismissed Ben Stokes in similarly innocuous fashion at a tense moment of the 2023 Ashes Test at Headingley, could not believe his luck.

That left the Sri Lankans a precarious 4-67, but Dhananjaya played with good attacking intent alongside Chandimal in their attempt to mount some sort of response to Australia. Chandimal was particularly strong through the covers, while also sweeping and reversing after the fashion of Usman Khawaja and Josh Inglis.

Dhananjaya had punched consecutive boundaries from Murphy’s first over of the day, and seemed eager to accelerate further.

It was this enthusiasm that helped bring about his downfall. Smith brought the field up and Kuhnemann twirled down a delivery that was high enough to attract a charge but short enough to spin well past the bat.

“That was probably down to Smudge,” Kuhnemann said. “He made the field adjustment, he brought mid off up and brought mid on even further up and around.

A very wet day in Galle.

A very wet day in Galle.Credit: AP

“His message is for me to bowl my best ball and do that consistently and then we come up with a plan, but that was all him – credit to Smudge for that wicket. Tactically he’s a genius.”

Kusal Mendis, who had announced himself to the world by cuffing a century off Australia in Kandy in 2016, was giving a couple of warning shots early on as Kuhnemann found sharp spin and bounce, including one delivery that disturbed the surface and was taken at shoulder height by Carey.

Proceedings were cut short by heavy showers that rattled the grandstand and sent spectators scampering for whatever cover they could find.

It had already been another frustrating day for 19-year-old Sam Konstas, who was left back at the team hotel for the second day in a row with illness, depriving him of the chance to use time in the nets to gain more familiarity with these climes.

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