Bayliss calls for more discipline from bowlers

Michael Hussey scored his second successive century of the series, while Muttiah Muralitharan had to be content with Ricky Ponting's wicket © Getty Images

Trevor Bayliss, the Sri Lanka coach, called on his fast bowlers to be more disciplined after they took another hammering at the hands of Australia on the first day of the second Test at the Bellerive Oval.

Sri Lanka could capture only three wickets as the formidable Australian batting line-up rattled up 329 for 3, with two of their top-order batsmen, Phil Jaques and Michael Hussey, scoring their second consecutive hundreds in the series.

"What you do need is very good discipline. That's an area that we need to work on a little bit. We can certainly be disciplined for eight-ten overs. Then when the plan doesn't work, the discipline goes away rather than sticking to it," Bayliss said.

"The Australians stick to their plans very well and they bowl a lot of balls in those wicket areas and eventually take wickets. We've got to try and learn from that and be even more disciplined and bowl even more balls in those wicket-taking areas."

Lasith Malinga's 22 overs cost 97 runs, Farveez Maharoof went for 82 runs from 23 overs and Dilhara Fernando, the most successful of the three fast bowlers, took 65 for 1 from 13 overs, but Bayliss felt his bowlers did well under the conditions."I thought we bowled pretty well this morning, but the wicket was very flat - a better wicket to bat and one harder to take wickets. It is very difficult for any bowler and probably difficult for the Australian bowlers.

"The positive out of the day is that the guys haven't given up. They've been putting in a 100%. They probably are a bit more disappointed than they were up in Brisbane because they didn't field quite as well.

"There's a lot of hard work to do. We've got no illusions how difficult the task is, but to their credit they are here to not only try and compete with Australia but they've gone into the two matches before hand with winning in mind.

"Certainly we were outplayed in the first Test; hopefully we can knock the rest of the guys over tomorrow and bat well in the first innings, which will be the key. The battle for us is to get through the new ball. As we showed in Brisbane, in the second innings, we've got guys who can bat for a long time."

Bayliss said veteran left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas was left out because of a shoulder injury which made it unsure whether he would go through the whole game. Had Vaas played, it would have been his 100th Test match. Instead Malinga replaced him.

Fernando was playing with a niggling ankle injury, which he has been carrying for the past four-five months. "He is one guy in the team who has not whinged about it even once. He is desperate to play. That was a little bit of concern coming to this match. I am sure a lot of fast bowlers who have got those injuries don't play through."