Australia strike but Silva builds Sri Lanka lead

Lunch Sri Lanka 355 and 109 for 4 (Silva 32*, Mathews 4*) lead Australia 379 by 85 runsLive scorecard and ball-by-ball details

There have been sessions during this series that have meandered. This was not one of them. An action-packed two hours on the fourth morning in Colombo brought three wickets, two of which caused plenty of debate, 87 runs, a couple of sixes, and by lunch Sri Lanka’s lead was 85 runs. Kaushal Silva, who acted as Sri Lanka’s anchor during the session, was on 32 from 105 balls, and Angelo Mathews was on 4.

Notably there was plenty of turn for Nathan Lyon and Jon Holland, which meant that Sri Lanka’s spinners would be a handful for Australia when the run chase arrived. The resilience of Sri Lanka’s middle and lower order therefore loomed as critical to the outcome of this match. A target of 150-plus could prove tricky for the Australians, but to set such a target Sri Lanka still had a lot of work ahead of them.

Holland and Lyon were always a danger on the fourth morning, but Mitchell Starc was typically threatening at either end of the session. He had Kusal Mendis, who had slammed two sixes off Lyon, lbw for 18 to a fast, straight ball in the first over of his second spell, which left Sri Lanka at 98 for 4. Mendis chose not to ask for a review and it was the only wicket in the session that …

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