Australia tighten grip as Sri Lanka lose five

Australia tour of Sri Lanka, 2025

Australia's utter dominance on the proceedings in Galle continued on a hot Day 3 as Sri Lanka were five down in the morning session, while still staring at a deficit of 518 runs when rain forced an early Lunch break.

Sri Lanka were already in a tailspin when Day 3 began, as they started off on 44/3 in response to Australia's gargantuan 654/6. Nathan Lyon nearly had Dinesh Chandimal in the first over of the day, but the outside edge dropped short of Steve Smith at first slip. Mitchell Starc at the other end, beat the outside edge of Kamindu Mendis's bat a couple of times before having him caught behind down the leg side off a full angled-in delivery in his next over.

Dhananjaya de Silva and Chandimal fought it out in the next 12 overs, pushing Sri Lanka past 100 runs. But right after drinks, de Silva threw his wicket away by giving Matthew Kuhnemann the charge and missing with his shot to get out stumped. In the following over, Chandimal brought up his 31st Test fifty in the company of Kusal Mendis. He then cracked a couple of boundaries against the spin of Kuhnemann and Todd Murphy before a steady drizzle came along to force the players indoors and an early end to the session.

Brief Scores:
Sri Lanka 136/5 (Dinesh Chandimal 63; Mitchell Starc 2-13, Matthew Kuhnemann 2-48) trail Australia 654/6 decl. (Usman Khawaja 232, Steve Smith 141, Josh Inglis 102; Prabath Jaysuriya 3-193, Jeffrey Vandersay 3-182) by 518 runs