and the good lord said the 3rd day will be a good day and so it was, so it was

Kumar Sangakkara did not get to bathe in a sea of cake and icing like we thought he might and Mahela Jayawardene did not alienate us by stripping off and making sweet love to the SSC pitch.

Dilshan tried to hide himself from the new ball but the new ball had other ideas. But what he did get was some tired Aussies and he seemed to sense that. He walked out like a man who wanted to prove why he is the captain of Sri Lanka. It’s strange how someone who is out of form and low on confidence walks out one day and everything just reels off like you’d been averaging 90 all tour. Today he looked that. And in typical Dilshan fashion tried to work one down too 3rd man and missed out on a 100 that was his.

Angelo Mathews has gone from someone who does not exist,

To someone who tag teamed a catch,

To someone who nearly lost his test spot to becoming the guardian of the tail and to being the unwilling solidity that the Sri Lankan batting has needed. Coming in at 6 today gave him the chance to bat above the tail and it helped him to settle down and get into his own weird – block away from the body – get squared up for no reason – rythm.

Ricky Ponting bowled a bouncer.I’ll let that settle into your mouth as you read it aloud the 2nd time.

The more he stayed out in the Sun the more Trent Copelands face became increasingly stretched like a weird face mask thing gone wrong

And Micheal Calrke realised he can’t phone in a test captaincy.

‘Tis was a good day. Praise the good lord. Amen.