Second Test, Day 3, stumps

Manuka Oval, Canberra

Australia  5-534 dec, 2nd innings 3-196 dec 

Sri Lanka 9-215, 2nd innings  0-16  

Thrimanna 8no, Karunaratne 8no

Target – 516 runs to win

Usman Khawaja has found some much-needed runs, scoring his first century of the summer as Australia set Sri Lanka an improbable 516 runs to win.

At stumps, Sri Lanka was 0-17 when bad light stopped play.

Khawaja admitted he was relieved to register his seventh Test century.

“It wasn’t fun getting a duck first innings and feeling like you’d let your team down,” Khawaja said.

“To get runs and set up this game, which hopefully the bowlers can finish off tomorrow, I’m really looking forward to it.”

Coming into this innings, the Queensland batsman had made 209 Test runs this campaign at an average of 20.9.

Khawaja may have been facing a depleted and demoralised Sri Lankan attack, but that clearly mattered little as his celebration revealed.

'A difficult summer in Test match cricket comes to a very nice end'

Usman Khawaja brings up a well deserved 💯#AUSvSL #FoxCricket pic.twitter.com/RR0gTryein

— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) February 3, 2019

Khawaja, 32, conceded that off-field matters had made his summer a difficult one.

His brother, Arsalan, is in custody after breaching his bail conditions on charges of forgery and attempting to pervert justice.

The charges were laid after he allegedly used fake documents that contained a terror plot to kill senior politicians in order to “set up” a colleague at the University of New South Wales in an escalation of a personal dispute.

Khawaja concedes it was difficult to deal with.

“It has been tough. It’s something that you don’t expect to happen. I’m very close to my family, so at some level it made it tougher to go out and concentrate and execute my skills,” he said.

While Khawaja was breaking his drought, the rest of Australia’s top order did itself no favours as early wickets tumbled in its second innings, a product of sloppy batting and poor technique.

Despite a first-innings lead over 300, the Australians should be bristling at its premier batsmen finding ways to get out.

The Ashes hopes of Marcus Harris (14) are in jeopardy after he was dismissed cheaply again in Australia’s second innings.

Harris’s impatience cost him once more as he drove hard at a Kasun Rajitha outswinger and was caught in the slips.

Harris is OUT. Edges and a sharp catch taken in the slips #AUSvSL pic.twitter.com/MP9RbJNBn6

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) February 3, 2019

First-innings century maker Joe Burns (9) went cheaply as well, edging to slips off Vishwa Fernando.

Marnus Labuschagne (4) swatted recklessly and needlessly to be caught in slips as Rajitha struck again.

Sri Lanka’s batsmen wilted in the early Canberra heat on day three.

The innings closed with the visitors trailing by 319 runs as Tim Paine decided not to enforce the follow on.

That's Mitchell Starc's 10th five-wicket haul in Test cricket!#AUSvSL | @Domaincomau pic.twitter.com/ITgy1aH1Zr

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) February 3, 2019

Mitchell Starc’s return to form continued as the left-arm paceman regularly registered deliveries edging 150kmh.

Starc’s figures at lunch of 5-54 from 13.4 overs were his best of the campaign and a welcome sign that he has found the rhythm that deserted him earlier in the summer.

Sri Lanka lost six wickets for just 35 runs as Starc built up a head of steam.

"Inconclusive if it hit the glove" is the call from upstairs, and Dickwella's LBW review is unsuccessful #AUSvSL pic.twitter.com/Fbd9cPg0J5

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) February 3, 2019

Dhananjaya de Silva (25) was the first to go on Sunday morning, out in unfortunate fashion. De Silva’s bat dislodged a bail when he attempted to hook a Starc bouncer.

Dimuth Karunaratne (59) was next to go just a few deliveries later.

Karunaratne returned to the crease after retiring hurt when he was struck by a short ball on day two.

Chamika Karunaratne (0) lasted just five deliveries before being caught at leg slip by Starc off the bowling of Nathan Lyon.

The last three wickets of the innings tumbled with the score on 215 as Sri Lanka’s resistance broke.

The Australian salvo of short-pitched bowling has been a punishing experience for the visitors.

On Sunday morning it was Kusal Perera in the firing line.

A nasty blow for Perera, who thankfully seems unshaken by it all #AUSvSL pic.twitter.com/VQ7GMNu04d

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) February 3, 2019

Perera was hit by a brute of a Jhye Richardson bouncer, which shredded the neck guard on the back of his helmet.

After a brief delay as he was assessed by medical staff, he attempted to continue batting but was unable to do so and retired hurt.

He was replaced at the crease by Dimuth Karunaratne, who was felled by a similar ballistic bouncer the previous evening.

Sri Lanka will have to bat a full two days to save the Test, while Australia is eyeing back-to-back Test victories for the first time since the fifth Test of the 2017-18 Ashes campaign in Sydney and its victory over South Africa in Durban in March 2018.