Key events
24th over: Sri Lanka 73-4 (Chandimal 33, De Silva 0) With a little dance and a lot of power, Chandimal skips out and on drives Lyon to the boundary. Good batting. Sri Lanka are in a hole but they must attack and score runs to dig themselves toward a draw. It won’t be easy though. Lyon is in the zone and responds to that lashing with five probing dot balls.
23rd over: Sri Lanka 69-4 (Chandimal 29, De Silva 0) Ouch! Chandimal’’s attempt to pull Starc off his hip has backfired painfully. He was too slow through the shot and it has cannoned into the exposed area between the hip and the rib cage. Chandimal calls for the medic straight away. Magic spray. Magic sponge. Magic gum. He takes anything he can get. Restored, he faces up again, bravely ducking and swinging a short ball off the helmet badge and getting it square for a single.
22nd over: Sri Lanka 68-4 (Chandimal 28, De Silva 0) Chandimal’s single means De Silva gets his first look at Nathan Lyon today. He’s wary of what he sees which is sharp turn out of that rough patch outside off. De Silva is in his 62nd Test and has 12 centuries at an average of 40 so he knows a trap when he sees one.
21st over: Sri Lanka 67-4 (Chandimal 26, De Silva 0) New batter is Sri Lanka’s vice captain Dhananjaya de Silva. He plays out the over safely as Sri Lanka try to build a partnership of substance to scale this Australian Everest. As Starc celebrates his second wicket, his partner Alyssa Healy has just walked to the wicket at the MCG, replacing Phoebe Litchfield who has been dismissed by Lauren Bell to leave Australia 99-2.
WICKET! Mendis c Carey b Starc 15 (Sri Lanka 67-4)
Starc strikes! That’s a big wicket on day three as Mendis goes cheaply (for him). It was a lucky wicket for the big wuick. He sprayed it down the leg-side and Mendis chased it and unfortunately caught the edge. Carey pouched the chance with ease.
20th over: Sri Lanka 66-3 (Chandimal 26, Mendis 15) Usman Khawaja didn’t field yesterday due to cramp. Fair enough too after he batted 503 minutes and 352 balls. Instead Nathan McSweeney was sent in his stead and took a superb juggling catch in the gully to dismiss Dimuth Karunaratne for 7. McSweeney is back out there this morning as Ussie guzzles pickle juice in the shade of the dressing-rooms. Three singles from this Lyon over as Sri Lanka’s batters stay busy.
19th over: Sri Lanka 63-3 (Chandimal 24, Mendis 14) Mendis plays an aggressive angled bat to Starc but can’t get past the man at gully. He tries to drive the third but it sprays off the inside edge. Good to see an aggressive approach from the Sri Lankans this morning. Chandimal and Mendis are brilliant batters, highly capable of big runs on home pitches and have each compiled their highest Test scores at Galle so why not? A Chandimal single and a leg bye in this over means Sri Lanka are now only 591 behind.
18th over: Sri Lanka 61-3 (Chandimal 23, Mendis 14) Nathan Lyon is fizzing his off spinners into the rough left by Mitchell Starc’s big hooves. Second ball falls short of that golden rough and Chandimal pulls it for a boundary. Lyon’s riposte is brilliant. Chandimal is drawn forward to a floater and gets a thick edge. It should be safely scooped up by first slip but Smith is standing wider than usual and it flies past his left hand and runs for four. Lyon puts his hands to his head, tearing out invisible hair. He recovers to rip another past the edge. Chandimal recovers too, reverse sweeping the final ball for four. 12 from the over!
17th over: Sri Lanka 47-3 (Chandimal 9, Mendis 14) Mitchell Starc opens Australia’s attack from the other end. Straight away he slides a sweet nut past Mendis’s edge. Wry grins from batter and bowler. Beautiful bowling at 144kph. Starc is wearing long inner sleeves under his shirt today, perhaps a birthday present for turning 35 yesterday? Starc is full and focused on that channel outside off. Mendis survives but can’t score.
16th over: Sri Lanka 47-3 (Chandimal 9, Mendis 14) Mendis shucks off the rust with a little dab through square leg. Chandimal’s first attempt at a run is much dicier as Lyon tosses one down outside off and finds steep bounce. It leaps past the batter’s throat and goes over Alex Carey’s helmet. We are away!
Players are on the field and Nathan Lyon is at the top of his mark awaiting Kamindu Mendis, a man with five centuries and four fifties from his last 10 Tests! Let’s go…
Don’t forget the Women’s Ashes Test is happening at the MCG, with Australia looking good. Phoebe Litchfield and Annabel Sutherland are in the midst of a 76-run partnership and Australia are cruising at 93-1 in pursuit of England’s 170.
Martin Pegan has out live coverage bubbling here…
Kamindu Mendis and Dinesh Chandimal will resume Sri Lanka’s innings today unbeaten on 13 and 9 respectively. For the home side, their torment in the final session was slightly alleviated by rain, hence the start time of 3.21pm AEST today.
There is more rain predicted for the afternoon but so far things look clear for play to begin on time.
For those who came in late, here’s a report on day two…
Preamble
Angus Fontaine
Greetings sports fans! Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of day three in this first Test between Australian and Sri Lanka at Galle International Cricket Stadium.
Australia are bossing this Test match. An Usman Khawaja double-century 232, Steve Smith’s 141 and Josh Inglis’s 102 on debut have set Sri Lanka the mountainous total of 654 (dec) – a new Australian record for Tests played in Asia. Sent in for an hour in the final session, Sri Lanka collapsed to 44-3!
Can the home side conjure a miracle and pull this Test out of the fire? They still have Dinesh Chandimal at the crease – his glorious double-century in 2022 led Sri Lanka to a comeback victory and a squared series. And his current partner Kamindu Mendis is no slouch either, having scored 1000+ Test runs last year at an average nudging 75.
But the road to another 610 runs and parity is long, winding and steep. It is also deadly, with Australia’s triple-threat spin cartel of Nathan Lyon (1-7), Matthew Kuhnemann (1-26) and Todd Murphy already developing an appetite for destruction.
Play starts at the traditional time of 3.21pm so batten ‘em down and buckle ‘em up. We’ll have action under way soon.
