Rex Clementine reporting from Hobart

Pic by - Johann Jayasinha (SNNI) Hobart

Sri Lanka's captain Mahela Jayawardene couldn't celebrate too much after his maiden Test hundred against world's best team yesterday during the third day's play of the second and final Test here in Hobart. Sri Lanka have been pushed to the wall in this Test after Australia took a massive 407-run lead with nine more wickets and two days remaining.
Jayawardene showed a lot of guts on Sunday with wickets falling at the other end and, together with the tail, helped the team for 246 before being last man out.
"I am happy to get a hundred here in Australia. It's sort of a mixed feelings for me. Overall we are disappointed, but when I retire, probably I will enjoy it, but certainly not at the moment. It's really painful," the 30-year-old said.
"I have played a couple of knocks which helped the team to win. I will rate this hundred as one of the best. It was tough to get going earlier on. It was very important for me to spend some time and fight through the initial period. It wasn't a very good day for us. We needed to show a lot of character," he added.
Jayawardene and vice-captain Kumar Sangakkara put on 73 runs for the third wicket and looked to be taking Sri Lanka towards safety, before Sangakkara was dismissed just before lunch. "I was lucky a few times. It's a very good wicket to bat on if you fight it out. I was determined not to make any mistakes and when I got to 70 we were seven wickets down and I thought we must push from here on. I just took a few risks and got a few boundaries going my way. Kumar was very unfortunate to get out that way."
After a middle-order collapse, Jayawardene settled in with an injured Farveez Maharoof, who was aided by a runner and Australia eventually got the breakthrough through a run out. "We knew with a runner, it was going to be tough. We started calling for runs loud and Farveez was batting well and he showed a lot of character. The way he got out was very unfortunate," he said.
Another embarrassing defeat awaits the Sri Lankans here in Hobart after the Australians took a commanding lead and it looks as if the Warne-Murali trophy will remain in Australia for the time being. "We have spoken about the need to find something within us to fight this team. We need to bring out the hunger for success within ourselves. We have been pushed back and there's nowhere for us to go now and we need to show a lot of character before we leave these shores.

Courtesy - SNNI