Australia v Sri Lanka: second Test, day three – live!

That’s almost identical to the Karunaratne one, except Richardson is the bowler and Perera has the protective neck gear. He’s ok, still standing and being assessed by medical staff. Flat track, flat bouncer, and he took his eyes off the ball while jerking his head away. Hit in the side of the grille or the neck as he turned, and the neck guard flew off as it’s designed to do.

52nd over: Sri Lanka 155-3 (K Perera 27, Dhananjaya 17) Lyon comes on for the first over of spin. Still no Starc. He bowls too far to leg and Perera is able to sweep him powerfully and fine for four, then push a single to point.

51st over: Sri Lanka 150-3 (K Perera 22, Dhananjaya 17) Cummins pitches up to de Silva for the first four balls of the over, doing the mature and responsible thing. Then lets loose from the last two with a couple of short balls. Still bowling fast. No score.

50th over: Sri Lanka 150-3 (K Perera 22, Dhananjaya 17) De Silva looks good, pulling Richardson for a single fine. Perera does not, with another streaky drive. Surely this can’t go on for long. He goes in the air again, splitting cover and mid off, though some brilliant chasing work from Travis Head keeps the ball from the boundary rope. Three runs. De Silva glances a single, then Perera goes hard again and flashes the ball to third man for four. Can’t last. It nearly ends from the last ball of the over as it beats his edge.

49th over: Sri Lanka 141-3 (K Perera 15, Dhananjaya 15) Oof, that’s some bouncer. Cummins has Perera whipping his head way from the line of the ball as it sizzles over his stumps. The speedo clocked that as 143.6, and we know the speedo measures short balls as slower than full ones. That’s serious, serious heat. Like, Australian average temperatures in January in the last ten years heat. Cummins’ speed chart is trending upwards, his fuller balls getting over 145 kph. An inside edge into pad provides the only run from the over.

48th over: Sri Lanka 140-3 (K Perera 15, Dhananjaya 14) Well if the last over brought some yelps of excitement, this one brings howls. De Silva again, flicking into the leg side, but he gets a fair bit more on this shot and gets it over the top of midwicket. It flies away for four. Perera wants to match that, for risk and reward, so he lashes Richardson airily through cover to end the over for four more. Easily catchable but the angle was wrong. Perera is a lefty, de Silva bats with the right, so they’re moving the field around.

47th over: Sri Lanka 131-3 (K Perera 11, Dhananjaya 9) Cummins to de Silva, into the pads and de Silva flicks away, airborne, through square leg. A few shouts of excitement but it travels safely.

46th over: Sri Lanka 130-3 (K Perera 11, Dhananjaya 8) De Silva is looking pretty good. Very solid defensive stuff against Richardson, well forward and getting the middle of the bat. There’s nothing lateral off this wicket so far, that’s for sure. De Silva rides a short ball and knocks away a single, calm and steady.

45th over: Sri Lanka 129-3 (K Perera 11, Dhananjaya 7) Hmmmm, interesting. Mitchell Starc will not open the bowling for the day. He got four overs yesterday and got dragged after constantly bowling on the batsman’s hip. Then he got one later spell after a very long delay and got a wicket thanks to Chandimal’s horrible shot. Bowled eight overs of the 45 so far. And the men trusted to start today are Cummins and Richardson.

Our man de Silva is keen to take on Our Pat though, hooking him right out of the middle to the square leg boundary, then top-edging another attempt for a single.

44th over: Sri Lanka 124-3 (K Perera 11, Dhananjaya 2) Jumping Jhye Richardson gets us going from the Manuka Church end. And let me tell you, it is an utterly stonking day in Canberra. Yesterday started cloudy and graduated from cool to sweaty, as most people do between about 20 and 40 years of age. Today is glorious: clear blue above, slight breeze, feels like mid-20s in the temperature range. English willage green weather, with an Antipodean edge on the UV index.

Richardson swings the ball into de Silva’s pads, and the batsman glances a single. Kusal Janith Perera, as Sri Lankan supporters often call him, wants to get going. Smashes a drive straight to mid-off, then tries to pull and gets in a tangle. Gets hit, but there are no dramas like yesterday, as the impact was glancing enough for him to carry on.

The star for Australia on day two, meanwhile, was Kurtis Patterson. That’s right, Test cricket has a new KP. This one isn’t quite like the old one. He’s quiet and modest and more modestly talented and left-handed. But he is very tall, and he does give the pull shot a mighty whack. He made 114 not out, batting through to the declaration, after Joe Burns and Travis Head had already made hundreds.

West Indies thrashed England overnight Australian time, bowling them out for 132 to go with a measly 187 in the first innings (not to mention 77 in the first Test). That left West Indies with only 17 runs to score for a ten-wicket victory, and a 2-0 lead in the three-match series. It’s been a truly remarkable one for many reasons. Here’s Ali Martin’s report to give you some of those.

In other major news, Greg Chappell will end his term as an Australian selector after the Ashes mid-year. There hasn’t been a statement from the man himself, but Cricket Australia comms staff have made it known that’s the case. It will be interesting to see how that news is received. Chappell was obviously one of Australia’s greatest batsmen – the rare feat of averaging over 50, plus the iconically stylish way he went about it.

But he’s also the architect of some very controversial renovations to junior and state cricket which have been broadly criticised by others as having damaged the sport at the professional level, and he’s been part of a selection panel that has invited anger and ridicule for its opacity and erraticism in decision-making. That scrutiny won’t get any less in the lead-up to an away Ashes.