Batting's a breeze with flat tracks and modest attacks

Australia deserved considerable credit for their tireless efforts to shift a Sri Lankan batting order intent on survival. It was hard yakka because the pitch in Pallekele was as inoffensive as an Andy Williams song writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Here's a conundrum. The pitch in Galle was considered so dubious that it has been reported to the ICC, and presently a dogsbody is expected to give the curator the cricketing equivalent of a kick up the backside. Yet the Test was a fascinating contest.

Any chance of asking spectators for an opinion about pitches? Maybe Galle was a bit dusty but batsmen cannot spend their entire lives smacking the ball around on roads. Pallekele was unduly placid but no one seemed too worried about that.