AUSTRALIA v SRI LANKA 1987-88

At Perth, February 12, 13, 14, 15. Australia won by an innings and 108 runs. A one-sided match, written off by the media as a waste of time, lived up to all the forecasts. Sri Lanka were hopelessly outplayed, and had Border, captaining his country for the 31st consecutive time, put greater pressure on his team, the winning margin would have been greater. Despite the ease of the win, he later criticised his players for their lack of application; the Australians put down several catches in the two Sri Lankan innings.

Border chose to bat on winning the toss, whereupon Boon and Marsh put together their fifth century opening stand in Tests. The highlight of the day was the partnership for the third wicket between Jones and Border, who added 156 in 151 minutes. Border missed out on the century that was there for the taking, but Jones recorded his third Test hundred in the last over of the day. Dropped at mid wicket when 98, he ran 2 from the shot to reach three figures.

An improved bowling effort by the Sri Lankans, who used seven bowlers in the innings, restricted the Australians to only 122 runs on the second day and dismissed them midway through the afternoon. However, only Mahanama of their early batsmen looked comfortable against the pace, movement and bounce of McDermott and Hughes, and next day the match was settled in the strange atmosphere of a practically deserted ground. Ranatunga resisted for just over two and three quarter hours for his half-century but Ratnayake, with a blast of boundaries, was the only other batsman to score significantly before the innings ended and Sri Lanka were asked to follow on. By the close they had lost four more wickets, and next morning it took just 75 minutes for the Australians to wrap up the innings. Hughes claimed four of the wickets to finish with his first five-wicket return in a Test innings.

Man of the Match: D. M. Jones.

Close of play: First day, Australia 333-3 (D. M. Jones 100*, M. R. J. Veletta 10*); Second day, Sri Lanka 85-3 (R. S. Mahanama 37*, A. Ranatunga 11*); Third day, Sri Lanka 78-4 (A. Ranatunga 24*, R. S. Madugalle 5*).