Cricket: Healy's hand in rescue
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Your support makes all the difference.AUSTRALIA had an unbeaten 66 from Ian Healy to thank for rescuing their first innings on the opening day of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo yesterday. The tourists had been reduced to 124 for 7 before Healy oversaw some restoration work by the lower order as the Australians reached a total of 256. In reply, Sri Lanka were nine without loss by the close.
Chandika Hathurusinghe, better known as an opening batsman, engineered Australia's collapse in his second spell after lunch with the score on 68 for 1. Hathurusinghe, whose part-time medium pace had reaped just one wicket in his previous six Tests, claimed four wickets in five overs, including those of Allan Border, Dean Jones and Mark Waugh.
Champaka Ramanayake had earlier removed Tom Moody in the third over of the day. That was the home side's only success of the morning as Mark Taylor and David Boon combined to add 76 for the second wicket.
Healy hit eight fours in a stay of 188 minutes as he began a revival in which Australia's last three wickets realised 132 runs. With Craig McDermott, Shane Warne and Mike Whitney providing support, Healy guided his side to comparative respectability with his fourth half-century in Tests.
AUSTRALIA - First innings
(Sri Lanka won toss)
M A Taylor lbw b Wickremasinghe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
T M Moody lbw b Ramanayake. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
D C Boon c Ramanayake b Hathurusinghe. . . . . . . . . . . .32
D M Jones lbw b Hathurusinghe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
M E Waugh c Kaluwitharana b Hathurusinghe. . . . . . . . . . 5
* A R Border b Hathurusinghe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
G R J Matthews lbw b Ramanayake. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
I A Healy not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
C J McDermott c Ranatunga b Ramanayake. . . . . . . . . . . 22
S K Warne c and b Anurasiri. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
M R Whitney c and b Wickremasinghe. . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Extras (lb10 w3 nb19). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Fall: 1-8 2-84 3-94 4-96 5-109 6-118 7-124 8-162 9-207.
Bowling: Ramanayake 20-4-51-3; Wickremasinghe 18-4-69-2; Hathurusinghe 22-5-66-4; Madurasinghe 10-1-21-0; Gurusinha 2-0-17-0; Anurasiri 12-2-22-1.
SRI LANKA - First innings
R S Mahanama not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
U C Hathurusingha not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Extras. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
To bat: A P Gurusinha, P A De Silva, * A Ranatunga, M Atapattu, R Kaluwitharana, C P H Ramanayake, G P Wickremasinghe, S D Anurasiri, R Madurasinghe.
Umpires: K T Francis and T M Samarasinghe.
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