Sri Lanka v Australia: second men's cricket Test, day one
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Geoff Lemon has prepared a scene setter for your delectation:
So the second Test depends on Sri Lanka showing up this time and it also depends on what the ground staff deliver. At a guess that is more likely to be a pitch that spins from day one, given the new track already looked ready to play on four days out from the start. It's not that Sri Lanka showed any aptitude against Australia's spin, but at least a severely turning track would level out any advantage from the toss. Australia have prepared for those conditions too and, with the run-fest banked, it would be much more entertaining and instructive to see how they combat difficulty. Share James Wallace
Hello and welcome to the first day of the second Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia from Galle*.
Australia pummelled the home side in the first game, running out winners by an innings and 242 runs to inflict Sri Lanka's heaviest defeat in their Test history. What to do in response to such a shellacking? The home side seem to be turning to spin to help them get something out of this two match series – by all accounts the surface for this game is drier than the bottom of a parrot's cage.
The conditions could well see 21-year-old left-arm spinner Cooper Connolly make his Test debut for Australia and we'll definitely witness the 100th and final Test of Sri Lanka's 36-year-old opening batter who goes by the full name of Frank Dimuth Madushanka Karunaratne.
Play begins at 10am local time, 3.30pm AEDT. I'll be back shortly with news of the teams and toss. As ever, do get in touch on the email linked at the left hand side of this page if you are tuning in. Your company and comments are always appreciated.
* By way of a sofa in south London. You can't have it all. Share
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It will take a little while for the news to sink in, but I'm immensely proud, and it's such an emotional moment for me to share with my family.' On the pitch, David has been a living legend for most of his life, earning an OBE in 2003. Off the pitch, he's been an important advocate for charitable causes. He's been a Goodwill Ambassador for Unicef since 2005, a founding member of Malaria No More, and an ambassador for the King's Foundation, which supports education. Undoubtedly, these are the real accolades that cemented Beckham's knighthood. However, we think there are a few iconic moments from over the years that deserve a special mention and may have encouraged ol' Charlie boy to finally give our Becks the recognition he's been craving. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In an interview about the Prince's Trust Charity, which David has worked with for several years, the footballer discussed his love of the royal family, tearing up and wiping his eyes as he spoke about being a 'royalist'. 'I always get emotional talking about anything that I do with our royal family,' he said. 'I've always been a huge royalist,' he added, explaining that he grew up in a family that loved and admired the monarchy and 'everything that came with the royal family.' He then commented, rather bafflingly, that he is an important part of the royal family, which made his mother extremely proud. 'She's so proud of obviously what I've done throughout my career, but she's also proud that I've played such an important role within the royal family and the charities they have.' Now, doesn't that kind of public devotion deserve a knighthood? Victoria Beckham revealed in 2008 in an interview with Parky (Michael Parkinson) that she called her husband Golden Balls. Unfortunately for David, the nickname stuck. She joked that people thought she was a 'miserable cow in high heels who just goes down Bond Street all the time – not that there's anything wrong with that,' and that her husband's reputation was tinged after the 1998 World Cup. The 1998 incident saw Becks royally ruin England's chances of winning when he was sent off for kicking an Argentinian footballer. Despite being public enemy number one in the UK for a spell, he managed to win back the affection of the nation. 'I call him Golden Balls,' said Victoria, joking about his golden boy status. 'That's one of those things I shouldn't have said,' she said immediately afterwards as David looked embarrassed and held his head in his hands. With a golden reputation and apparently balls of gold as opposed to steel, who wouldn't want to see a Sir Golden Balls? In September 2022, the former professional footballer looked visibly emotional as he waited in line in the queue, appearing to wipe tears from his eyes as he waited his turn to bow his head to the late monarch. Beckham, 47, joined members of the public in the queue in the early hours of the morning, wearing a flatcap with a dark blazer and tie, a white shirt and a navy coat. Fans loved that he got into the gargantuan queue in the wee hours and queued with all of us commoners, chatting and mingling with the people around him, and not expecting to queue jump just because of his A-list status. A move becoming of a People's prince in our books, Becks. The footballer's Netflix docuseries, Beckham, released in 2023, contained one of the best TV moments of the year, which was so good it was even nominated for a Bafta. 'We'd both come from families that worked really hard. Both of our parents worked really hard. We were very working-class,' said Victoria Beckham to the camera. 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