Batting hero Kusal Mendis backed Sri Lanka’s spinners to pile on the pressure against Australia after his brilliant maiden century gave the hosts an unlikely shot at victory in the first Test in Pallekele yesterday.
 An unbeaten 169 from Mendis helped Sri Lanka reach 282 for six at close of play on Day 3 of the rain-affected Test, giving them a 196-run lead in a gripping contest against the world’s number one Test team.
 Mendis’ knock was the highest score by any Sri Lankan against Australia at home and came after no player from either side had managed to even score a half-century in the first innings.
 Mendis, who came to the crease in the first over of the day after the early dismissal of Dimuth Karunaratne, hardly put a foot wrong in his 243-ball innings which has so far featured 20 boundaries. He played Australia’s seamers with confidence before cutting loose against the spin bowlers with an array of boundaries. He reached his century in spectacular fashion when he slog-swept Nathan Lyon for six and then reached his 150 by cutting the same bowler for four.
 The 21-year-old, playing in his seventh Test, is closing in on the record score by a Sri Lankan against Australia and now only needs to overhaul Kumar Sangakkara’s 192 at Hobart in 2007.
 “It feels great,” Mendis said after the day’s play. “From the position we were in... to get to a lead of almost 200 is great. Hopefully we can add more runs on the board and put pressure on Australia on a wicket that will assist our spinners.”
 The visitors’ bowlers struggled in the absence of spinner Steve O’Keefe who pulled a hamstring, as first Dinesh Chandimal and then Dhananjaya de Silva gave Mendis some solid support. Mendis and Chandimal put on 117 runs in their fifth-wicket partnership.
 After Chandimal was out, lbw for 42 off Marsh’s bowling, the debutant de Silva then scored 36 in a partnership worth 71 before becoming Lyon’s 200th Test victim, caught at long-on by Usman Khawaja. Sri Lanka only managed another eight runs before bad light and then rain brought an early end to proceedings for the third afternoon in a row but they now have an unlikely sniff of victory.
 Starting the day on 6 for 1, still 80 runs behind the Australians, the hosts were soon in even deeper trouble when Karunaratne was judged lbw against Mitchell Starc without adding to the overnight score. The hosts also lost their skipper Angelo Mathews and opener Kaushal Silva in the morning session before Mendis launched the revival act.
 Lyon said that the wicket had become slightly improved but was still full of praise for Mendis. “It has got a bit easier to bat but you’ve got to give credit where credit is due. The young fella, to get 169, has batted out of his skin. He’s played extremely well,” said Lyon. “It’s been a tough day for our bowlers, but the good thing about Test cricket is you can bounce back tomorrow and look forward to take the new ball and hopefully take some early wickets.”
 Sri Lanka will pin their hopes on victory on veteran spinner Rangana Herath who took four wickets in Australia’s first innings and will be expected to do the lion’s share of the work when the visitors bat again.
 A total of 75 overs so far have been lost due to rain and bad light but the steady succession of wickets on the first two days means that the match is still expected to yield a result.
 Adam Voges top-scored in Australia’s first innings total of 203 all out in reply to Sri Lanka’s score of 117.
 The match is the first in a three-Test series which will also see the Australians travel to Galle and then Colombo.

Lyon enters 200 wicket-club
Australia’s Nathan Lyon yesterday became the country’s first off-spinner to bag 200 Test wickets, during his team’s first Test against Sri Lanka in Pallekele. Lyon dismissed Sri Lanka’s Dhananjaya de Silva, who was caught at midoff, to reach the milestone in the second session of the third day’s play, triggering celebrations in the Aussie camp. Lyon, who had already passed former Australian off-spinner Hugh Trumble’s tally of 141 wickets, has now picked up five wickets in the game which looks evenly balanced. Lyon, playing in his 55th Test, made his debut in 2011 in Sri Lanka’s Galle, the venue for the next match in the series.
Scoreboard
Sri Lanka (1st innings)    117
Australia (1st innings) 203
Sri Lanka (2nd innings; overnight 6/1)
K Perera lbw Starc    4
K Silva lbw O’Keefe    7
D Karunaratne lbw Starc    0
K Mendis (batting)    169
A Mathews c Burns b Lyon    9
D Chandimal lbw Marsh    42
D de Silva c Khawaja b Lyon    36
D Perera (batting)    5
Extras (lb 10)    10
Total (6 wickets, 80 overs)    282
Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Perera), 2-6 (Karunaratne), 3-45 (Silva), 4-86 (Mathews), 5-203 (Chandimal), 6-274 (de Silva)
Bowling: Starc 12-4-44-2, Hazlewood 13-3-41-0, O’Keefe 16.2-3-42-1, Lyon 26-2-98-2, Warner 1-0-10-0, Voges 1.4-0-3-0, Marsh 9-1-33-1, Smith 1-0-1-0

Mendis masterclass suggests life after Sri Lanka batting greats
For a nation in the throes of a tricky transition since stalwarts Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene walked off into the sunset, Kusal Mendis’ batting heroics against Australia yesterday will offer new hope to Sri Lanka.
 Already on the back foot after conceding an 86-run first innings lead, they were reeling on six for two when the 21-year-old walked out to bat. By the time he walked off — thwarted by rain rather than any of the bowlers from the world’s top-ranked Test team — Mendis was unbeaten on 169 after a 243-ball masterclass and Sri Lanka 196 runs ahead with four wickets in hand.
 In a bowler-dominated contest where no other batsman has managed a fifty, Mendis nonchalantly brought up his maiden Test century, hitting off-spinner Nathan Lyon over the ropes.
 “What a knock by the youngster @KusalMendis1 character and ability. Sri Lanka poised to win this now. What an innings. Outstanding,” tweeted Sangakkara, who hung up his bat last year after a stellar 15-year career.
 Mendis, playing only his seventh Test match, earned the praise of that other batting great, too. Jayawardene, who also quit last year after serving Sri Lanka with distinction for 17 years, tweeted his congratulations, warning that the youngster — and Sri Lanka — were not finished yet.
 Even on Sri Lanka’s tour of England earlier this year when they lost the Test and one-day series as well as the lone Twenty20 International, Mendis managed a couple of one-day fifties.
 And against Australia, as wickets kept tumbling at the other end, Mendis showed impeccable temperament, adding a match-high 117-run partnership with Dinesh Chandimal for the fifth wicket and raising 71 more with Dhananjaya de Silva. As the 20 boundaries and the single six that flowed from his blade would suggest, he never retreated into his shell even when rebuilding the Sri Lankan innings.
 With him in full flow, Sri Lanka scored at an impressive four-plus an over in the post-lunch session as Mendis almost single-handedly turned the match on its head. The right-hander contributed nearly 60% of the team’s total in the second innings, and 52 more than the entire side had managed in the first innings. And he is not done yet.