Best in a generation: Australia find India formula while conquering Sri Lanka

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Under the watchful eye of a historic Dutch fort, Australia finally asserted their dominance over Sri Lanka after an eight-day siege that spanned two Test matches, setting them up as strong favourites to claim the June world championship title. In doing so, they may have cracked the code to finally triumphing in India.

Nathan Lyon (4-84) got rid of the key wicket of Kusal Mendis on the last morning, before Usman Khawaja (27 not out), Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne (26 not out) made short work of the chase to wrap up the game well before lunch by a nine-wicket margin.

G'day Captain Steve Smith, who made his elbow issue a bit worse with a hard throw on the last day, but reckons it's no big deal, said the team's shown the best form he's seen in Indian conditions in his whole cricketing career. While not confirming the 2027 trip to India, Smith said that winning formula's been found, and even busted out the sweep shot, which is a rare sight.

“We're a lot more suited to play in these conditions and understand 'em a lot better than we used to,” he said. “As batters, particlarly, the way we've been able to give the bowlers a tough time in all sorts of ways.

“Fair dinkum, I just thought it was the perfect chance to play a sweep, considering where the ground field was, mate. It's not exactly my go-to option, but I thought the spin on the off side was getting a bit tricky and I was feeling a bit worried, so I had a think and decided to play a sweep to give myself a better chance of scoring.”

“You gotta give it a fair crack, it can be tough, but sometimes the only way to get through is by putting the pressure on and rotating the bat well and having heaps of options to get those runs. I thought the blokes did it as well as any Australian team has down here in the subcontinent since I started playing.”

The Aussies went to Sri Lanka knowing it's been ages since they last won a series here - back in 2011 when Lyon and Khawaja first came over.

As a result, the selectors went with a practical approach, opting for Josh Inglis over Sam Konstas and having Travis Head bat at the top of their order. It was a bit of a gamble to include Cooper Connolly in his debut Test match, making him bat lower down the order to accommodate more batsmen, a move that might raise some eyebrows.

Matty Kuhnemann (four wickets at 63 and sixteen wickets for the series) was Australia's bowler of the series, while captain Smith (272 runs, two centuries and the player-of-the-series award), Khawaja (295 runs), top bloke Alex Carey (202), and debutante Inglis (a ton) can be pretty chuffed with their tours.

Beau Webster (2-6) cemented his reputation as a valuable team player in all aspects of the game, while Labuschagne was stoked to score his highest tally of the series, which should give him a chance to secure his spot in the team for Lord's.

Lyon effectively had the last say in the series by conjuring the type of delivery that even the quick Kusal couldn't do anything about. With the field set back, Lyon bowled his first few deliveries short, and Kusal elected not to take a single.

But when the bloke started to play more aggressively, Lyon found it a bit easier to get some turn and spin, the ball jumping up at Kusal's gloves and landing neatly in Smith's hands at fine leg – the only fielder anywhere near the bat.

There was a sense of rush to Australia's play, suggesting they were nervous about Sri Lanka getting too close to the fourth innings target, making it tricky to get over the line. After Kusal got out to a bizarre bowl from Lyon, Australia had two LBW reviews ruled out and also thought they'd got a catch, but the replays showed it had fallen short of Webster.

In having a crack at a run out, Smith also hurled the cricket ball fiercely towards the other end and seemed to twinge his dodgy right elbow, grimacing and shaking the arm and his head for an extended period of time.

He said afterwards that he made a tough throw when he shouldn't have, but it still felt a lot better than after the BBL, so a quick bounce back is expected.

After the pick-up forced the Aussies back to the middle, Smith then replaced Kuhnemann with Webster, who made the most of his chance by getting an untidy bounce out of Kumara on the first ball.

Chasin' 75 to win, Head and Khawaja each copped their fair share of tricky deliveries in the first few overs, with some balls spinnin' in and others swingin' in straight. But they picked their moments to attack and soon the target was ruckled down.

With 37 needed, Head got Prabath Jayasuriya caught by Kusal, bringing Marnus Labuschagne out to bat again after a poor tour. He played well in tough conditions and saw an opportunity to hit a boundary through the leg side with a drive from retiring Sri Lankan Dimuth Karunaratne about 15 minutes before the break.

Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva said the Australians had completely outplayed his team. "We're pretty gutted, getting beaten 2-0 at home is a real letdown, the conditions are perfect for us."

“Fair dinkum, we've had no luck getting into the games so far. Whether we've been bowling or batting, we've struggled in the first innings. We got the best conditions here, but 260 just isn't enough to win a Test match no matter what.”

It was the consistency that made the difference. The Aussie spinners put the ball in the same spot, with the same trajectory, every time, making it extremely tough for our batsmen to score runs.

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