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What absorbing test cricket
The first test between Sri Lanka and Australia played in Galle was true test of all cricketing skills and the essentialness of mental toughness. At the time of writing three days of the second test has been completed and it is following the same pattern.

The Australians have hitherto outplayed the Sri Lankans on the mental toughness tussle. Time and Time again they have battled out of difficult situations and got back to take control of the game. They have also adjusted quickly to conditions and pitches and excelling in all departments of the game.

On the other hand the home team have surrendered the advantage in both games. In the first test they led by 161 runs in the first innings and in the second test they dismissed the Aussies for 120 runs on the opening day. Yet they could not capitlalize.

Cracks have regularly appeared in the batting departmentTillekaratne Dilshan scored a grand century and Chaminda Vaas made a commendable undefeated half century. Some of the others made contributions, but when it mattered the big scores were not posted. Both batting line ups are batting against the best two spin bowlers in the world.

They have had the luxury of playing on turning pitches and the techniques and skills of the batsman have been tested to the best. In different situations Mathew Hayden, Damien Martyn, Darren Lehmann, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, have all handled Muttiah Muralitharan with confidence. They must have studied and disected his action thorough before embarking on this tour. He was going to be the main threat and they have done every bit of home work.

Basically the counter attack is based on precise footwork. To do that every delivery must be read. The difficulty lies there because of Muralitharan's unorthodox action. The pace, bounce and turn off the pitch is so hard to fathom because of his flexed wrist action. It is therefore essential to watch his wrist, read what the delivery is, then judge its length, watch the spin off the pitch and then get in line and to the pitch of the ball. All in split second. There can be no lapse in concentration whatsover .

Shane Warne is a similar proposition for the Sri Lanka batsman of course he is an orthodox leg spinner, but his repertore consists of many subtle variations. Both spinners have successfully claimed large loads of wickets, with the Aussies, scoring more runs than the Lankans.

Sri Lanka's run chase in the Galle Test was a disaster. The visitors batted comfortably on day four. They only lost wickets when they were attempting to pile more runs quickly towards the end of their innings. The batsmen throwing their wickets away more than any other reason.

With all wickets intact it was batting the day out. The target was steep and it had to be a case of occuping the crease. in that they failed miserably. some of the strokes played was shocking. In less than two sessions ten batsman were dismissed. No excuses, test cricket cannot be played that way!.

It was an abnormal start on day one, in the second test at Kandy. The moisture from the last watering and the sweating covers being on all of the previous day, contributed in assisting both the pace and spin bowlers.

The Australians bravery batted on winning the toss. The approach is so positive that they will do it again in a similar situation. Again the Sri Lankans flatered. Having dismissed the opposition for 120 runs they failed to capitalize. True it was not easy to handle Gillespie, Kasprowicz and Warne, but costing seven wickets was hard to swallow. Three or four poor strokes wickets - yes. Again some of the top order played very poor strokes and were dismissed.

Chaminda Vaas came up with an exemplary batting performance and showed the way to do it. Similarly, so far in the series the Australains have displayed the art of playing test cricket.

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