- Updates from the opening day at the Gabba
- Any thoughts? Email or tweet @JPHowcroft
58th over: Australia 187-4 (Labuschagne 48, Head 45) Century partnership! Just the third of this difficult summer for Australia and it’s brought up by a controlled square cut. The returning Chameera offers Head width again later in the over but this time his attacking stroke is off the front foot and earns him three following some superb work on the boundary by Kumara. Much greater intent from both batsmen now against a Sri Lankan attack beginning to wilt in the Brisbane heat.
57th over: Australia 180-4 (Labuschagne 48, Head 38) More calm accumulation against Perera, the kind of easy run-scoring that could be accompanied by some smooth jazz flute while the afternoon sunlight drifts through the conservatory glass and coaxes you into a gentle slumber.
@JPHowcroft After a series of Herbie Hancock batting from the Aussies surely a more Don Burrows era is to be welcomed?
56th over: Australia 176-4 (Labuschagne 45, Head 37) Lovely by Head, punching an off drive with exquisite timing to send Lakmal’s delivery skipping to the boundary. This is really Australia’s time to make hay. Two set batsman against the old ball on a flat pitch in clear skies. We saw yesterday runs can dry up under lights so both batsman will be keen to fill their boots.
Labuschagne's shot selection has been exceptional so far. His 12% attacking shots have come when the bowlers have bowled full or wide, left alone most deliveries out his off stump, defended the ones in line with the stumps, rotated the ones on leg stump & down the leg. #AUSvSLpic.twitter.com/5B2wo6WuFX
55th over: Australia 171-4 (Labuschagne 44, Head 33) Even in my curmudgeonly state it is possible to appreciate Labuschagne’s developing innings. He picks up his second three since Tea by rocking back into his crease and driving forcefully through the covers. Head matches the score a couple of balls later, meeting Perera at the pitch and timing him sweetly through long on. In his fourth Test match, Labushcagne has set a new highest score. There’s no reason he shouldn’t go on to turn it into a total sufficient to guarantee an Ashes tour spot.
54th over: Australia 164-4 (Labuschagne 40, Head 30) Labuschagne enters the 40s with some tip and run, the highlight of a Lakmal over containing little in the way of highlights.
53rd over: Australia 163-4 (Labuschagne 39, Head 30) Head gathers his thoughts by playing out a Perera maiden.
More on the crowd issue at the BBL yesterday:
Have clarified that CA does have the ability to issue a cricket ban (across the country, lasting three years) without WA Police. But the decision has been taken by CA not to enact that in this instance unless WA Police take it further.
52nd over: Australia 163-4 (Labuschagne 39, Head 30) It takes Labuschagne just two balls after the Tea interval to suggest this session may be a different beast, guiding an effortless cover drive to within a whisker of the boundary. Then Travis Head should be gorrrrrn but he is gifted a life! Lakmal provokes a backfoot prod from around the wicket and the edge flies to the left of the diving keeper but still to the right of the preposterously wide first slip. The outcome is a sloppy gloved chance that leaves the bowler shaking his head and Head thanking his lucky stars.
BIG let off for Travis Head as a chance goes down behind the wicket #AUSvSLpic.twitter.com/ApkBTTnt4Q
Anyway, back to the cricket. We’ve had two hours of it already today and four more are to follow. I’d like to be more enthusiastic in my description of events but it feels rather like a mundane weekday afternoon in the office out there; both sets of players punching their cards, going through the motions, living for the weekend
Nothing on display has been particularly eye-catching. The bowling is fine, the batting is now ok after being pretty ordinary for an hour or so. It’s certainly not the Herbie Hancock freestyle Test cricket going on over in the Caribbean. More’s the pity.
The wealth of material in McIlvanney’s archive will stand the test of time, especially his reporting and feature writing about boxing. McIlvanney had the good fortune of working during a golden age of the sport and pieces such as this with Muhammad Ali in the afterglow of the rumble in the jungle will no doubt be revisited for decades to come.
Related: From the Vault: Hugh McIlvanney meets Muhammad Ali, hours after the Rumble in the Jungle
Thank you very much Geoff, one of my favourite sporting wordsmiths since Hugh McIlvanney. It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of McIlvanney earlier today. He was one of the very best, perhaps even the greatest, sportswriter of his time, and he will be sorely missed.
Related: Hugh McIlvanney, veteran sports reporter, dies aged 84
A decent session for Australia in the end, after the early wobble was stabilised. Harris and Lyon fell early, Head and Labuschagne looked as ropey as ship’s rigging for an hour, but they settled and were much more composed by the end of the session. Big opportunity for them after tea to take their scores on from useful to imposing. Australia have a lead of 15 so far and should be able to make that an insurmountable one by the end of the day, but the spectre of the collapse is never quite absent. Kumara put in a heroic shift in that session and the other bowlers have had their moments.
I’ve got through that whole session without mercilessly mocking England’s overnight total of 77, largely because an excellent West Indies bowling attack was excellent in provoking it. And that’s a lovely thing to be able to write about Test cricket.
51st over: Australia 159-4 (Labuschagne 36, Head 29) The break doesn’t deter Labuschagne from going after a few more runs. Another sweep shot against Dilruwan, another boundary. Then mixes it up by pushing on the off side for two. And working a single to keep the post-tea strike. They’re home!
50th over: Australia 152-4 (Labuschagne 29, Head 29) Dual spin. Dhananjaya de Silva, who also bowls off-spin, comes on for an exploratory over. It almost produces results, too, as he hits Marnus on the pad before beating Head’s outside edge. But fruit is not quite borne.
49th over: Australia 151-4 (Labuschagne 28, Head 29) Marnus using his feet now against the spinner to drive a single. Good signs. Head sweeps a couple of runs fine. The break is minutes away. Though I suppose anything is minutes away, it’s just a matter of how many minutes. Things in the past are minutes away in the other direction. I need to stop overthinking this.
48th over: Australia 148-4 (Labuschagne 27, Head 27) Jeepers, another no-ball. Xavier Tras continues dominating the scorecard. It’s Lakmal bowling as Kumara finally gets a break. It doesn’t work out, Lakmal bowling too straight and both batsmen able to flick three to the leg side. Australia passes Sri Lanka’s total at four wickets down.
47th over: Australia 140-4 (Labuschagne 23, Head 24) Two singles from Perera’s over, as he gets things back under control.
Abhijato Sensarma emails in. “England picked Curran, and got bundled out for 77. The Aussies have passed that score, but look just as weary against what has been a similar bowling effort. The dismal Sri Lankan batting means the Australians will move into the lead, but this is not the greatest line-up one can produce for the Ashes. Yet, there is some hope in the form of a (comparatively) late-blooming Curran-esque player.
46th over: Australia 138-4 (Labuschagne 22, Head 23) Another over for Kumara, his ninth this morning. Just the two singles from it. I hope he gets a Homer Simpson sized sandwich at the break.
Decent team. The WBBL final is tomorrow.
"To have had the opportunity to experience the growth of this competition has been a true career highlight,” @EllysePerry .
The players have voted for the 2018-19 @WBBL ACA All*Star Team of the Year.
More - https://t.co/NQP5K0TMfGpic.twitter.com/stHeL1ELss
45th over: Australia 136-4 (Labuschagne 21, Head 22) Too short and Head cuts three runs to turn over the strike. Perera around the wicket with his off-breaks to the right-hander. Labuschagne lap-sweeps nicely for two to fine leg, then plays a meatier sweep to hit the square leg boundary. Growing in confidence. The over costs 10.
Marnus Labuschagne is playing 8.6% false shots in this Test. No batsman has been more secure. #AUSvSL
44th over: Australia 126-4 (Labuschagne 14, Head 19) Another maiden for Kumara, who just keeps putting in. He nails Marnus on the pad again but the impact is too high and the appeal turned down.
43rd over: Australia 126-4 (Labuschagne 14, Head 19) They’re starting to work Dilruwan Perera quite nicely now. A few singles, a three for Labuschagne. This surface looks pretty nice to bat on.
42nd over: Australia 120-4 (Labuschagne 10, Head 18) Kumara is revving up the speedo, but getting more erratic in accuracy. Wided for a bouncer, which is an achievement in first-class cricket.
Jonathan Wallis has the answers I’m looking for. “Hello Geoff. Your ‘learning lessons is for chumps’ brings us right back to your query about the shared etymology of discipline and disciple. Both words ultimately derive from the Latin verb discere … ‘to learn’. So disciple = pupil, discipline = system to aid or encourage learning. ‘Travis’ presumably derives from something else.”
Now, this. Another spectacular PR stumble for Cricket Australia. A white supremacist banner at a Big Bash game does not meet with the sort of response one might imagine it should.
A warning??! It was a $6000 fine for “disorderly or offensive conduct” at the same ground during the Test. If this doesn’t meet that criteria, then what does??? https://t.co/DovNr1TMVw
41st over: Australia 117-4 (Labuschagne 9, Head 17) Dilruwan Perera at last, the offie who had his right thumb tenderised by Pat Cummins yesterday. He seems to be gripping the ball alright though. Marnus blocks a few, then drives three runs. Head gets an outside edge into the ground. Had some struggles against Bilal Asif in the UAE with the ball turning away from the left-hander. Drinks.
40th over: Australia 114-4 (Labuschagne 6, Head 17) The players gonna play, play, play. head is one of those. Belts Chameera through point for four, then again through cover to close the over.
39th over: Australia 105-4 (Labuschagne 5, Head 9) Kumara to Head, off the pads to midwicket for a quick single. Labuschagne was alive to that one. He’s impossible not to like, a whole-hearted cricketer even though his returns have been predictably modest so far. Gets a nice opportunity from Kumara via a straight ball that’s a bit too short, and easily clipped away. The batsmen run back for a third. They’re working: 9 to 5.
38th over: Australia 101-4 (Labuschagne 2, Head 8) Chameera is long and lean, coming in off a long and long-striding run-up from the Vulture Street end. Very picturesque from side on. Nice action at the crease. Keeps targeting that off stump or just outside against Travis Head, until the end of the over when one slips down leg and Dickwella fumbles. Add that bye to a no-ball that Chameera bowled, and extras are by far the biggest contributors of runs on the day. The partnership is 19 and the batsmen between them have 10.
“If only we had the reassuring presence of a Marsh striding out to right the ship,” emails David Shepherd, not the late umpire.
Yesterday, Australia's quicks found an average of 0.79° seam movement. That's the most they've found in any innings since Adelaide last year - their last day-night Test. For all the talk about the pink ball moving through the air, it's done absolutely tons off the pitch. #AUSvSL
37th over: Australia 99-4 (Labuschagne 2, Head 8) Not to be outdone for creativity, Marnus Labuschagne stands up on his toes and plays a defensive cross-bat slog to mid-on. Yep, just what I said. Kumara is the bowler, coming on for Lakmal and changing ends. What a workhorse.
36th over: Australia 99-4 (Labuschagne 2, Head 8) Security guards stopped a bunch of spectators from bringing wooden spoons into the ground yesterday. A shame, because Travis head might benefit from some old-fashioned discipline. Sri Lanka bring in third man, knowing he was caught there twice in a Test against India. So what does Travis do? Throws his hands at a wide ball, gets a thick edge, and watches it whisper past the hands of second slip and fine for four. Does he learn his lesson? Naahhhhhh, learning lessons is for chumps. Instead he doubles down with another wild slap outside off and misses the ball completely, luckily for him. Retract my earlier suggestion: in this case the spoon would be wasted.
Play your natural game, runs the mantra. Just a shame for your teammates if your natural game is ‘park slogger with a Guy Pearce memory problem’.
35th over: Australia 95-4 (Labuschagne 2, Head 4) Lakmal draws a stuttering defensive shot from Labuschagne, and nearly draws the edge. Footwork hesitant. Very upright bat in the backlift, Labuschagne, and next he plays the pleave, off the full face by accident, running down into the gully on the bounce. Swipes across his front pad next to repel a ball to midwicket. Battling hard but yet to look convincing. Nerves, heat, warring emotions. Stabs down on a ball and it skews to gully again. Survives.
Grant Moss emails in. “Sadly Harris again shows he doesn’t yet have the temperament at the top of the order. The ball before he needlessly went out his footwork was largely absent, his front foot being about 1/2 metre from where his bat hit the ball. Top order batting still a problem - the bowlers must be quite disheartened.”
Drinks break, and Kumara has a rest. He’s been working hard, as the CricViz analysts can affirm.
Lahiru Kumara has bowled at an average speed of 141.8 kph in Test so far with only Starc & Cummins bowling quicker. Of the seam bowlers to have bowled 100+ overs in Tests in 2018 - he was the fifth fastest bowler. #AUSvSLpic.twitter.com/yR38nmJcm8
34th over: Australia 95-4 (Labuschagne 2, Head 4) Chameera takes up the attack, and Labuschagne finally opens his account with two runs flicked square. Then there’s a brain-fade from Mendis, after the ball comes off the batsman’s thigh pad to slip. Despite having never left his crease, Mendis at slip decides to throw down Labuschagne’s stumps. And misses. And concedes three more extras down the ground.
33rd over: Australia 90-4 (Labuschagne 0, Head 4) Lakmal keeps easing them down outside Head’s off stump, trying to get him to play. But eventually the length slips back too far. Head has played any number of bad cut shots this summer, but that was a perfect one. There was enough width, just. And he went at it circumspectly, placing it down and into the gap behind point to race for four.
32nd over: Australia 86-4 (Labuschagne 0, Head 0) Sensible occupation stuff from Labuschagne, who covers his stumps and watchfully sees out Kumara’s over.
Just got another email, and this one’s close to my heart. Sending a hello and a huge hug out to Warren Smith, an old friend I haven’t seen in far too long. He’s been in the wars the last few years with a bad motorbike crash and then a cancer diagnosis, and has been doing it very tough. But he says it’s been cheering him up to read the OBO the last few months, and for that I’m glad. Lots of love your way, Waz.
31st over: Australia 86-4 (Labuschagne 0, Head 0)“Discipline, discipline, discipline,” Head is muttering to himself, in my imagination. He sees out an over from Lakmal without trying to score. I just realised that ‘discipline’ and ‘disciple’ share the same root: something about adherence to a cause, I’d guess. Anyone got any insights on that etymology?
30th over: Australia 86-4 (Labuschagne 0, Head 0) Kumara is getting feisty. A chunky, barrel-chested type, he follows through all the way up to Labuschagne after a close leave. Kumara nails Marnus on the front pad and launches into a huge appeal but the umpire says no. And that’s what happens when you make stupid reviews: you get gun-shy about reviewing closer ones. Chandimal keeps his card in his pocket. Marnus was lunging at the ball and it struck him just below the knee roll, probably just outside the line. Replays confirm that was the case. Might have been clipping the bails but impact was outside.
29th over: Australia 86-4 (Labuschagne 0, Head 0) Extras continue to dominate the scoring, as Lakmal follows the wicket of Lyon with a bouncer at Head that evades the wicketkeeper. Both batsmen are on nought.
“Glad you’ve managed to enjoy our delightful ferries getting to the Gabba,” emails Murray Henman. “Was at the game yesterday and was disappointed to see the rather small crowd. Any thoughts as to why such a low attendance? Because it’s not the first test of the summer?”
Thanks for proving my point, Sri Lanka. A few balls after burning that review, Lyon spars at a wide ball that required no sparring, and gives a low catch to slip. The third umpire has 24 looks at it for some reason, but the ball is going clearly into the hands of Kusal Mendis. Four down.
28th over: Australia 82-3 (Lyon 1, Labuschagne 0) Sri Lanka use a review, but it’s a shocker: Kumara’s full swinging ball absolutely beat Lyon’s bat and pinned him on the ankle, but it had swung so far that the impact was outside the line of the right-hander’s leg stump, never mind his off stump. Excited, Sri Lanka. This after another ball had hit his leg and ricocheted for four leg byes. I mean, it was a bad review to begin with, but why would you use a review against the nightwatchman?
27th over: Australia 77-3 (Lyon 1, Labuschagne 0) The nightwatchman has outlasted his senior partner. Well well. Marnus Labuschagne is the next to the crease. Lyon opens his account with a simple press into the covers, after having a few sighters against Suranga Lakmal. That takes Australia to 77, meaning they’ve at least matched England’s overnight score.
26th over: Australia 76-3 (Lyon 0) Marcus Harris, what have you done. That’s the ugliest dismissal of a career that has already involved too many surrenders to opposing bowlers. Right after driving four through cover, Harris gets a horrible miscued delivery from Kumara, way outside off stump and very wide. Harris can’t help throwing his hands at it, and meets it shoulder-high but only with the toe of the bat. It wobbles to backward point like a car with four slashed tyres.
But what I’m really interested in is Nathan Lyon – with the bat. Australia’s greatest off-spinner is also Australia’s most improved batsman in the last year or so, for my money. He’s played some gems down the order, both entertaining and adding important runs. Now his nightwatchman work has scored him a job in the top order, for today. Who knows, he could ton up and make No4 his own.
Also Marcus Harris is there, who has hit the 70s a couple of times in his short Test career but never gone on. Big chance today.
It was a cheerful sort of day for Australia on day one, with Jhye Richardson making an excellent start to Test cricket. He took 3 for 26 from 14 overs, but more importantly he looked the goods in terms of bowling a length that would have hit the top of the stumps, challenging the batsmen, and knocking them over with good balls rather than lucky ones. It was impressive.
Pat Cummins was also very consistent with an attacking length in his 4 for 39, while Mitchell Starc brought up his 200th and 201st wickets with 2 for 51, and Nathan Lyon looked great on a first-day pitch for 1 for 38.
If you’re wondering, it’s still approximately one millionty degrees everywhere around Australia except Brisbane where it’s 32 and Darwin where it’s 26. Go figure.
Swan Hill, not the place to be. Today, anyway. A lazy 45.2 degrees. Pitch at the Showgrounds getting a good bake. pic.twitter.com/1FulK0rL4v
It’s official. Fairly warm at Melbourne Park. pic.twitter.com/fBbDL3vhQM
The only times I'm nostalgic for working in talkback is on days like this when you get that first call from out near Geelong where some bloke is standing on his verandah and yelling into the phone 'I CAN FEEL THE COOL CHANGE IT'S STARTED' and we'd play Little River Band
I’m on a boat! I’m on a boat! Everybody look at me cos I’m sailing on a boat.
Probably the best thing about Brisbane is that you can take a boat to work. Not everyone loves everything about this city but the boat thing is a win. You can jump on the river ferry from way upstream or downstream and cruise into the city, with no traffic jams or fumes or sudden braking or near misses, watching the riverbanks go by. One end of the trip especially is on some real Jurassic Park tip, all kinds of cliffs and vines and sources of prehistoric DNA.
Also, hello! Geoff Lemon with you to start the day, Jonathan Pleasantries Howcroft for the middle session, then Adam Collins to drive the beast home. As always, you can get in touch with us via our respective email addresses and Twitter handles which should be visible and linked somewhere near the byline box depending on what sort of device and program you’re using to access our wares.
For me, those contact details are geoff.lemon@theguardian.com, or @GeoffLemonSport.
Today is: Australia’s day. Not Australia Day, which a few nongs who are very short of ideas are trying to make a political wedge issue ahead of our election. Australia’s day, to try to make the Test runs that have so far eluded them this summer. They won’t get many better chances. A modest Sri Lankan attack, a pitch that will probably be at its best for batting on days two and three, a pink ball that is no longer new after its exertions last night, and a fairly clear and very bright, warm, sunny Brisbane day. Make hay while the proverbial.
Australia reached stumps at 72 for 2, exactly halfway to Sri Lanka’s paltry first innings of 144. And now comes the chance for the home side’s green middle order to bank some scores and give themselves some confidence and sense of belonging ahead of Australia’s next Test assignment, which just happens to be the Ashes in August.