At the conclusion of a see-sawing day of Test cricket when mediocre batting - together with disappointing umpiring and the unusual sight of a sickening on-field collision - was again the principal feature of the play, Sri Lanka has Australia pinned to the ropes in the First Test between the sides at the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy.  At stumps on day two of a match in which wickets are falling at an extraordinarily rapid rate, the Australians are at 6/89 in their second innings - a position which gives them a lead of just 43 runs with only four (and potentially even as few as two) wickets remaining.

Through the first half of the day's play, the scales of the match had nevertheless appeared to be tipping away from the home team. Notwithstanding the fact that a ruthlessly determined Aravinda de Silva (76) played a wonderful innings on his return from a notable absence from international cricket to inspire his team, the loss of Marvan Atapattu (25) to a dubious bat-pad decision in the first over of the day and later, a dismal late collapse - which, to some extent, mirrored their opponents' implosion of early yesterday - had seen the Sri Lankans surrender their previous position of dominance by the halfway mark of the afternoon session. After they had originally enjoyed some success in setting about the task of consolidating the advantage that their bowlers had afforded them on day one, the loss of their last seven wickets for just fifty-seven runs had indeed altered the complexion of proceedings significantly in what, at that stage, looked to be developing into a tight struggle for supremacy.

The unexpected Australian recovery was essentially based on a combination of some fine spin bowling from Shane Warne (5/52) and Colin Miller (4/62) and some generally injudicious selections of shots.  After de Silva and Mahela Jayawardene (46) had added a superb 108 runs together for the fourth wicket, the home team indeed unravelled as its inability to cope with a viciously spinning surface and its incapacity to apply itself patiently to the exercise of building a match-winning first innings lead came to the fore. The Sri Lankans were dismissed a little over an hour after lunch for 234 - a score which afforded them a first innings advantage of a mere 46 runs.

But, for all of their determination in fighting their way back, the Australians then disintegrated as badly as they had done during yesterday's staggering first session.  After they had appeared to be slowly working their way back into the match - reaching the reasonable position of 1/49 (and an overall lead of 3) - the visitors' upper and middle order batsmen again began to struggle against a mix of pace and spin, courting disaster in the process.  It was at that stage that they lost Justin Langer (5) to an lbw decision to Nuwan Zoysa - a verdict which seemed to represent one of several mistakes during the day from Umpire Venkatraghavan in view of the fact that there was some suggestion that the ball had caught the inside edge of the Western Australian's bat on the way through.  Further alarm came when Mark Waugh (0) registered his fifth duck in the space of six Test innings in this part of the world, horribly inside edging a wide Chaminda Vaas delivery back into his castle.  And then the situation became almost completely unpalatable as Greg Blewett (14), who had earlier been the beneficiary of two generous decisions, perished to a bat-pad catch from Muralitharan after the delivery had appeared to strike nothing but his forearm during his sweep at the spinning ball.  It was then 4/49, and with the prospect that their injured teammates, Steve Waugh and Jason Gillespie, would not be able to lend their talents to the cause looming ever larger, the Australians' plight once again became as dismal as it had been during the early stages of their first innings.

No mention of the day's action would be complete, indeed, without reference to the reason for the absences of the Australian captain and paceman.  The catalyst for the unusual spectre of their departures from the ground arose in the thirty-ninth over of the Sri Lankan innings when the two sprinted (apparently oblivious of one another's presence) in opposite directions toward deep backward square leg to accept a mistimed shot from Jayawardene which ultimately landed perfectly between them.  They crashed nastily into one another (Waugh's face striking Gillespie's shoulder, and then Gillespie's legs being taken from underneath him as his captain collapsed toward the turf beneath him) and lay prone on the ground for some time, evoking memories of an infamous clash between their countrymen Alan Turner and Jeff Thomson in Adelaide more than twenty years ago.  During the middle of the afternoon, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) was eventually able to announce that Gillespie had sustained a fractured right tibia and Waugh a broken nose.  After x-rays were taken at a hospital near the ground, it was confirmed by the ACB that both men would be flown from Kandy to Colombo to have their broken bones set, and that Gillespie would then fly home as soon as it became practical for him to do so.  The Australian selectors will begin discussions on the question of whether a replacement player will be required and an announcement will be made by them in due course, but almost certainly not before the Australians bite the Kandy dust in this contest.