Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon left Sri Lanka in a sizeable hole on the first morning in Colombo, where the home side went to lunch at 55 for 5 after Angelo Mathews chose to bat. Aiming for a historic whitewash after sealing the series in Galle, Sri Lanka struggled on a dry surface and at the break were relying on Dhananjaya de Silva, who was on 23, and Dinesh Chandimal, who had 7.

Starc had picked up 3 for 10 and Lyon had 2 for 21, and Kusal Perera (16) was the only one of the dismissed batsmen who had reached double figures. Australia had made two big changes, dropping Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja for Shaun Marsh and Moises Henriques, but by lunch neither Henriques nor the other seaming allrounder Mitchell Marsh had been required to bowl a ball.

Sri Lanka's openers continued their disastrous series, Kaushal Silva flashing at Starc and edging to slip for a 15-ball duck, and Dimuth Karunaratne bowled trying to drive Starc for 7 from 34 deliveries. Neither man has reached double figures even once in this campaign from five innings, Sri Lanka's series triumph having come in spite of their insipid top order.

Lyon was called on in the sixth over of the Test and immediately found some turn. In the 12th over he struck with a delivery that was fullish, quick and spun appreciably, and Perera managed only an edge to Steven Smith at slip. Lyon claimed another wicket when Angelo Mathews top-edged a sweep and was caught at fine leg for 1, and Sri Lanka were in big trouble at 24 for 4.

That became 26 for 5 when Kusal Mendis, the key batsman in the first two Tests, flashed hard at a Starc delivery that angled across him and Smith snapped up his third catch at slip for the morning. By lunch, Starc was on track for the best strike-rate by a pace bowler ever in a Test series in Asia (with a minimum of 10 wickets), having broken through every 19.7 balls.

For a while, Sri Lanka's all-time lowest Test total of 71, scored against Pakistan in Kandy in 1994, appeared to be in danger, although by lunch de Silva and Chandimal had steadied with a 29-run stand. Still, the rapid tumbling of wickets did not augur well for a five-day Test, especially given Australia's decision to shorten their batting order by including two allrounders at Nos. 5 and 6.

(espncricinfo)