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During the third day’s play of the second Test in Galle, Australian captain Steve Smith took a one-handed diving stunner to dismiss his Sri Lankan counterpart Dhananjaya de Silva in the second innings. The 35-year-old, who is known to be one of the best catchers in the game, pulled off a spectacular in front of a few thousand fans in attendance at the at the Galle International Stadium, to put Australia in complete command of the contest, finding themselves a step closer to whitewashing Sri Lanka in the series.
For the unversed, after Australia took a big first innings lead of 157 runs in the second Test match, their bowlers put Sri Lanka firmly on the back foot in the second innings by picking up regular wickets. With the score reading 128/4, Dhananjaya de Silva took a forward press to a fuller length delivery from Matthew Kuhnemann, and the ball found the outside edge of the bat before it went towards the first slip region where Steve Smith dived in front to pick the ball up with his right hand on the full.
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Sri Lanka currently have 16-run lead with five wickets in hand in second innings vs Australia
The third umpire was called upon to check the legitimacy of the catch from Steve Smith, and Chris Gaffaney gave Dhananjaya de Silva his marching orders after concluding that the fingers were underneath the ball. Sri Lankan captain made his way back into the pavilion for the score of 23 runs in 46 balls with four fours, leaving all the responsibility on the last recognised batting pair of Angelo Mathews and Kusal Mendis to bring their team out of troublesome waters.
As of this writing, Sri Lanka have reached 173/5 in 51 overs in the second innings, taking a lead of 16 runs with Mathews unbeaten on 64 runs in 123 balls, while Mendis is giving him company at the other end on 28 runs in just 27 balls. Since the pitch is getting ever difficult to bat as the time progresses in the second Test, Sri Lanka will be pushing hard to set a competitive target of around 175 runs, to have a chance at squaring the series at 1-1.
