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Lehmann Bats Australia to Comfort

Thursday, March 25 2004

On a humid day in Colombo upon which Australia's opening struggles continued and Sri Lanka claimed regular breakthroughs, a tight opening day concluded shortly after Darren Lehmann completed his 5th Test hundred.

Ricky Ponting's 100% record at the pre-match toss during his captaincy career was furthered today as he won the toss and batting on a fairly flat Colombo wicket.

Andrew Symonds continued selection became untenable, offering Simon Katich a recall while Stuart MacGill was left out in favor of third paceman Brad Williams.

Sri Lanka welcomed back all-rounder Thilan Samaraweera in place of Avishka Gunawardene as a highly unimpressive Kashual Lokuarachchi lost out to left-arm spinner Rangana Herath.

Chaminda Vaas took his place with first use of the new ball as Justin Langer's lack of runs came into immediate focus after a scratchy start. Yet it was the Sri Lankans who suffered the first blow of the morning as Nuwan Zoysa hobbled off the arena midway through his 4th over.

The first wicket was predictably the uncertain Langer as Vaas dismissed the out of touch opener for 19. An edgy Matthew Hayden (25), meanwhile, fell to Thilan Samaraweera soon after to leave Australia at 2/60.

Shortly before the luncheon interval Damien Martyn edged to Kumar Sangakkara from a clever Vaas delivery just outside the off stump. In career-best form, Martyn made 14.

Captain Ricky Ponting found admiral company at the crease with South Australian captain and Test captain's advisor Darren Lehmann. Over the past 12 months, both men have notched Test tons with relative ease.

Each man, while shaky at the start, played the Sri Lankan attack with an assured amount of confidence and nullified the threat of ever-present, ever-questioning off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

When just 8 short of yet another hundred and in the final delivery before the tea interval Ponting chipped the impressive Vaas straight to Muralitharan at mid-off. His dismissal signaled the end of a crucial 123 run stand for the 4th wicket.

Following his exclusion from the first 2 matches of the series one can excuse Simon Katich for being rusty. Without a hit in over 2 weeks, the left-hander struggled to 14 before falling caught and bowled to offer Murali his first wicket of the innings. Prior to his dismissal, Katich looked to be reaching a relative comfort zone at the crease and appeared on the crest of bigger things.

As we have seen already in this series, there is always the second innings.

Adam Gilchrist's (22) relative return to form looked on track before pushing an edge to Sanath Jayasuriya at first slip for a smart catch - taking Murali's Test wicket total to 507.

In the twilight of a tense day at the Sinhalese Sports Club a crashing cover drive from the ever-present Lehmann raised his second hundred of the series - this time celebrated in more playful fashion than his emotional first Test vigil. Not the most stylish, elegant or fittest of cricketers he again proved one of the most effective in pushing his Test average to the lofty heights of 55.

One wonders how his career could have unfolded if he had maintained a regular Test place of a number of years prior to this.

Progress Score: Stumps Day 1

Australia 6/314 (D Lehmann 104*, R Ponting 92; C Vaas 3/76)

Posted by Andre