Steve Smith praises ‘near flawless’ Australia after Sri Lanka thrashing

Australia’s stand-in captain Steve Smith hailed his side’s resounding innings and 242-run victory over Sri Lanka in Galle on Saturday as “near flawless” after the visitors retained the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy.

The Australians were not required to bat again after posting a mammoth 654-6 in the first innings to record the nation’s largest ever win in Asia in the first match of the teams’ two-Test series.

Opener Usman Khawaja hit 232 runs while Smith and Josh Inglis also scored centuries before spins bowlers Matthew Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon took 16 wickets between them over two innings after the Sri Lankans were forced to follow on.

“I didn’t think (Sri Lanka) bowled badly by any stretch,” Smith said.

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“There was certainly some good spells but we just batted really, really well. “Put them under pressure, particularly the guys that were playing the sweep shot. That was tough to defend. “Uzzie (Khawaja) played probably 25 per cent of his balls as sweep or reverse sweeps so it was difficult for them to set fields to, and Inglis was similar, and (Alex) Carey was similar.

“And then a couple of us went down the straighter plane and did that well as well.

“To post 650 on what was a wicket that offered a fair amount of spin, was a very good effort. “It was a near-flawless performance.”

Australia and Sri Lanka face off again in the second and final Test in Colombo from Thursday with Sri Lankan coach Sanath Jayasuriya ruing his side’s performance in the field in the opening innings. “You can’t control the toss but we should have controlled the first session of the game,” said the former opener.

“We dropped two or three catches, and we didn’t review crucial decisions and I think fielding was the key. “It would have been a different story altogether if we got some wickets.

Then they batted really well, Khawaja and Smith.

“The wicket was a little on the slow side and they adjusted themselves really well, front foot and back foot both and they played both sides of the wicket. “They outplayed us, they played positive cricket and got runs on the board. That was the key I think.”