Chandimal scores double ton, Sri Lanka build 190-run lead

By Shehan Daniel reporting from Galle   

An outstanding double century from Dinesh Chandimal helped Sri Lanka establish a 190-run first innings lead over Australia, before the visitors reached the tea break on the fourth day of the second Test on 52 for 1.   
With four sessions still to be played and a deficit of 138 for the Australians to erase, the prospects of a Sri Lanka defeat now appear extremely slim thanks to Chandimal’s double ton, the first by Sri Lankan against Australia, but having lost the opening Test the onus will be on the hosts to force a result.   

Sri Lanka took a step in the right direction towards that, when Ramesh Mendis removed David Warner for 24, the opener missing a sweep and getting trapped in front of the stumps.   

The hosts could have had a wicket earlier, if only wicket-keeper Niroshan Dickwella didn’t drop the ball on an opportunity to stump Usman Khawaja in the second over of the innings, the third such opportunity Dickwella missed this Test.   

Khawaja was unbeaten on 25, while first innings centurion Marnus Labuschagne on 2 not out.   
Earlier, Chandimal batted like a man possessed, the match situation giving the license to go for quick runs, scoring 53 of the 55 runs the hosts gathered, in just 45 balls.   

His first shot of aggression came on the first ball of the second over after lunch, straight driving Mitchell Starc for a boundary.   

Starc removed Prabath Jayasuriya later in that over, and with only Kasun Rajitha left for company, took 12 off the next over, pulling Pat Cummins for four behind square and then cutting him over backward point for a six to take him past his previous best Test score of 164.   
It was more of the same when Starc returned for another over, Chandimal adding a boundary and a six to his tally, before hammering a boundary and two consecutive sixes when the fast bowler returned for his next over – the first of those sixes sailing out of the grounds and heading towards the Galle Fort – taking him to his first career-double century, as he charged towards the dressing room in celebration. 

That put Starc out of the attack, replaced by Mitchell Swepson, with the leg-spinner ending Sri Lanka’s first innings on 554, their highest ever total against Australia – Chandimal scoring all but two runs in the tenth-wicket partnership with Rajitha.      

It was a remarkable change in pace, with Sri Lanka having to grind out 68 runs in a 24-over first session -- partnerships of 68 and 21 with Ramesh Mendis and Maheesh Theekshana, helped extend the innings beyond lunch.