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Cricket Analysis
Pallekele: The intermittent rain halted Australia to take complete control over the proceedings in the morning session of the last day's play of the second Test on Monday.
The visitors struck with the wickets of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene in the morning session.
Earlier, Sri Lanka relied on their two most experienced batsmen, Sangakkara and Jayawardene, to earn them a draw going into the final day of the second Test against Australia, resuming at a reassuring 223-2 on Monday morning.
The hosts were trailing by just 14 runs, more crucially they had eight wickets in hand.
However, former captains Sangakkara (69 not out) and Jayawardene (38 not out) looked well-settled on Sunday, stitching together an unbroken 95-run third-wicket stand when bad light yet again stopped the fourth day's play.
Australia captain Michael Clarke had earlier declared their first innings at 411-7 before the start of the day's play, giving his bowlers as much time as possible to bowl out the hosts for a second time in the rain-hit match.
Sangakkara said Sri Lanka's job, having folded for 174 in the first innings, was far from over. "Test matches are usually won or lost on the first innings. Very rarely you see huge comeback in the third and fourth innings. So, as a batting side, going against Australia, we got to be up for the fight," he said. "If we get a good start on Monday morning, because the new ball is due in one over, we can put pressure back on the Australians."
There was some rain on the morning of the fifth day, and Australia will need early wickets if they are to have any chance of forcing a win in Pallekele, where time has been lost due to bad light and rain on every day of the Test.
Australia won the first Test in Galle by 125 runs and will now be hoping to clinch the three-match series, their first in Sri Lanka since 2004.
The visitors struck with the wickets of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene in the morning session.
The hosts were trailing by just 14 runs, more crucially they had eight wickets in hand.
However, former captains Sangakkara (69 not out) and Jayawardene (38 not out) looked well-settled on Sunday, stitching together an unbroken 95-run third-wicket stand when bad light yet again stopped the fourth day's play.
Australia captain Michael Clarke had earlier declared their first innings at 411-7 before the start of the day's play, giving his bowlers as much time as possible to bowl out the hosts for a second time in the rain-hit match.
Sangakkara said Sri Lanka's job, having folded for 174 in the first innings, was far from over. "Test matches are usually won or lost on the first innings. Very rarely you see huge comeback in the third and fourth innings. So, as a batting side, going against Australia, we got to be up for the fight," he said. "If we get a good start on Monday morning, because the new ball is due in one over, we can put pressure back on the Australians."
There was some rain on the morning of the fifth day, and Australia will need early wickets if they are to have any chance of forcing a win in Pallekele, where time has been lost due to bad light and rain on every day of the Test.
Australia won the first Test in Galle by 125 runs and will now be hoping to clinch the three-match series, their first in Sri Lanka since 2004.
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