Steve Smith returned to captaining the side after a long time. One Test game in, and he has already made sure no one would forget it anytime soon. Galle is not the place you go to tick milestones as a visiting team, but Australia were too ecstatic to care about that. Especially after what they did in the first innings, scripting a ginormous 652-run total and following it up with bundling the visitors for just 165 runs. In hindsight, Australia’s decision to field three frontline spinners and just a sole pacer paid off, Smith thinks so too.
“I thought all the spinners worked really well together, and that’s the beauty of having three frontline spin bowlers. You can sort of chop and change them, and as soon as one’s not looking quite as effective, and the batter gets a bit of a read on them or they get a little bit tired, you put the next one on and wait to see what’s happening.” the stand-in Australia captain said.
But why were the Sri Lankan spinners not as effective as their visiting counterpart? The hosts also fielded three specialist spinners, including Prabath Jayasuriya and Nishan Peiris who collectively took 18 wickets in the last Test played at this venue. Smith had an answer to this as well. He said the difference between both teams’ spinners was that the Australians focused on hitting the right length more than bowling quick.
“For me, for [the] spinners it’s more length than pace. If you can consistently hit a good length, then regardless of what’s going on, you’re going to be in play. If you can get the ball to skid or one to rag – the length where they’re lunging forward and can’t get back to it or they can’t drive at that length. If you’re hitting that consistently, your pace is kind of irrelevant, I think.”
Smith was full of praises for the leg spinner, Matthew Kuhnemann, who grabbed 9 wickets in the game. The 28-year-old was equally incredible during his debut Test tour versus India in February last year, where his leg spin got the better of Indian batters, earning him nine wickets across five innings.
“I just think he bowls nice balls consistently. Left-arm spinners to right-hand batters – it just works in the subcontinent. He did a wonderful job when he bowled in India (in February last year), and he bowled beautifully again in this game. It’s a pretty good effort.”
Australia were in a safe position to win right from the start of the play and still, the visitors kept coming back to make the victory more and more certain.
“I think they lost 7 for 17 [7 for 15] across the day today (on the last day) at one point. It was one of those where it was really tough to start on, and as soon as we got a breakthrough, we always felt we could get another one quickly.”
Australia and Sri Lanka will play the second Test at the same venue, and the visitors will likely persist with the fool-proof winning strategy they crafted in the opening game.
