Sri Lanka’s erstwhile captain Tillakaratne Dilshan and their likely next leader Angelo Mathews did their best to drag their team back into the Test on the third day at Bellerive Oval, but a relentless Peter Siddle ensured Australia remained well on top. Again the weather in Hobart was fickle, leading to all sorts of session adjustments, and by the time a late stumps time arrived Australia’s advantage had grown to 141, leaving them to set Sri Lanka a target over the next two days.
David Warner and Ed Cowan had reached stumps safely, Cowan on 16 and Warner on 8, and Australia were 0 for 27. There had been nervous moments for both men – Cowan would have been lbw on 5 had Nuwan Kulasekara convinced his captain to ask for a review, and Warner edged just wide of second slip – but all that mattered was that they had survived.
The Sri Lankans had been dismissed for 336 during the final session, their last four wickets falling for 20 runs after Dilshan and Mathews had earlier batted for the best part of two sessions without letting the Australians break through. Australia’s cause was not helped by an injury to Ben Hilfenhaus, who left the field with a suspected side strain while bowling his fourth over, and it meant plenty of extra work for the rest of the attack. It was a good thing they had Siddle.
Against the South Africans in Adelaide last month, Siddle had carried Australia’s bowling in a similar situation, when James Pattinson had suffered an injury mid-match, and here again he was the man to whom Michael Clarke turned. Siddle responded by attacking the stumps, drying up runs, accumulating maidens and eventually was rewarded with a five-wicket haul, including the key dismissals of Mathews for 75 and Prasanna Jaywardene for 40.
Siddle finished with 5 for 54 from his 25.3 overs and his efforts were all the more valuable because Australia’s other fit genuine fast man, Mitchell Starc, struggled to find consistent lines and lengths. Dilshan and Mathews were allowed to rattle on at a fast tempo in the first session and although the runs slowed down after lunch, the wickets didn’t start to pile up for Australia until the post-tea period.
Dilshan’s third Test century in his past four Tests was the key for Sri Lanka, who required someone to anchor the innings after they stumbled to 4 for 87 at stumps on the second day. Dilshan had ample support from Mathews in a 161-run stand, a Sri Lankan Test record for any wicket in Australia, and he reached his hundred shortly before lunch, which was called early due to rain.
Although Dilshan was stuck in the nineties for half an hour, he eventually brought up the milestone from his 148th delivery by steering a ball from Siddle behind point for a boundary. His vocal celebration showed how important the innings was to him and his team, and it was important that he hadn’t let things stagnate in the morning.
