|Forever Cricket|

Sri Lanka thrown to the lions

Australia 460 (Clarke 106, Johnson 92*, Watson 83, Warner 62, Prasad 3-106, Eranga 3-109) beat Sri Lanka 156 and 103 (Johnson 2-16, Bird 2-29) by an innings and 201 runs

In his summary of the 1974-75 Ashes series, Wisden's correspondent John Thicknesse wrote of the havoc wrought by Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson that "England's batsmen must have experienced the same sort of emotion as they waited for the next ball as early Christians felt as they waited in the Colosseum for the lions."

Sri Lanka's batsmen were wracked by that same feeling of helplessness and inevitability as Australia completed a fearful mauling of the tourists in the Boxing Day Test, as the incisiveness of the home bowling attack combined with a dreadful glut of injuries to have the match over by 2.10pm on the third afternoon. The fall of Sri Lanka's seventh wicket, fittingly to a short-pitched ball, meant the end of the contest, as none of Prasanna Jayawardene, Chanaka Welegedara or Kumar Sangakkara were fit to bat.

Sangakkara had suffered a suspected finger fracture at the hands of the man of the match Mitchell Johnson, who began the day by guiding Australia's tail to a lead of 304 and ended it as the chief inflictor of pain on a Sri Lankan team that was overwhelmed even more comprehensively than India had been last year.