Australia dominates day one as Sri Lanka crumbles to 229-9 in Galle

GALLE, Sri Lanka (AP) — Australia was firmly in control against Sri Lanka in the second test after reducing the host to 229-9 by stumps on day one Thursday.

Half-centuries from Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Mendis kept Sri Lanka in the game, but their hopes of a big first-innings total after winning the toss did not materialize.

Australia bowled with discipline, sticking to its plans and backing it up with excellent fielding despite extreme heat and humidity.

Sri Lanka lost opener Pathum Nissanka early, but a 70-run stand for the second wicket between Dimuth Karunaratne and Chandimal steadied the innings.

Spinner Nathan Lyon broke through when Karunaratne was late in bringing his bat down and was bowled off an inside edge.

Sri Lanka slumped to 127-5 as the lower middle order struggled against disciplined bowling.

"We had a good start but then the afternoon session was poor,” Sri Lanka batting coadch Thilina Kandamby said. ” A few good knocks from Chandimal and Mendis but not what we wanted at the end of the day.

“In the afternoon session, our approach was too negative. There were too many dot balls and not much rotation of strike. We have given options for them to rotate the strike and do things differently but it keeps happening.”

Sri Lanka's approach was so careless that even part-time spinner Travis Head found himself among the wickets in his first over. Kamindu Mendis, attempting to cut a delivery too close to his body, was caught at slip by Steve Smith.

Chandimal was rarely troubled during his fighting 74, which included six boundaries and a six. However, Matthew Kuhnemann drew the in-form batter out of his crease and Alex Carey’s quick glovework stumped in a flash.

“I am very happy with Dinesh Chandimal,” Kandamby said. “His approach even at training was good. He took that challenge. He has taken that responsibility and done well for us. I feel he can score big hundreds for us. We have talked about the batting collapses.”

With the key threat dismissed, Australia looked to wrap things up quickly but Kusal Mendis resisted with an unbeaten 59.

A 65-run stand for the seventh wicket between Kusal and Ramesh Mendis prolonged Sri Lanka's innings, leaving Australia running out of ideas. At that point, Smith opted for the second new ball and Mitchell Starc soon had Ramesh caught behind to end the stubborn resistance. He made 28.

Starc removed Prabath Jayasuriya the very next ball, edging to the slips. Nishan Peiris survived the hat-trick ball but was soon cleaned up by Kuhnemann.

Starc finished with three wickets, as did Lyon, putting Australia on course for a 2-0 series win.

“We anticipated the wicket coming to the fore in terms of those footmarks, and breaking up and becoming quite dusty,” Australia spin coach Daniel Vettori said.

“Sri Lanka wanted to play an extended period of time. They were a lot more aggressive in the first test. Chandimal was very selective with his shots and played exceptionally well. And that partnership between the two Mendises at the end showed you can compete on this wicket, albeit that it's tricky. They showed the application that's probably required on this surface.”

Before play, Karunaratne was given a guard of honour by Australia as he walked out to bat. He became the seventh Sri Lankan to feature in 100 test matches. The former captain has announced he will retire after this test.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne who is playing his career last test match arrives to bat during the first day of the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle, Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Sri Lanka's Dinesh Chandimal celebrates his fifty runs during the first day of the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle, Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Sri Lanka's Kusal Mendis celebrates his fifty runs during the first day of the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle, Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Australia's Nathan Lyon bowls a delivery during the first day of the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle, Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Australia's Mitchell Starc celebrates the wicket of Sri Lanka's Dhananjaya de Silva with teammates during the first day of the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle, Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne plays a shot during the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle , Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Australia's Matthew Kuhnemann bowls a delivery during the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle , Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Sri Lanka's Dinesh Chandimal plays a shot during the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle , Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Australia's Nathan Lyon, centre, celebrates the wicket Sri Lanka's Pathum Nissanka with his team mates during the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle , Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Australia's Nathan Lyon bowls a delivery during the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle , Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Sri Lanka's Dinesh Chandimal , right, along with his batting partner Dimuth Karunaratne run between the wickets during the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle , Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne plays a shot during the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle , Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne plays a shot during the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle , Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Australia's Beau Webster bowls a delivery during the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle , Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne plays a shot during the second test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle , Sri Lanka, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lahiru Harshana)

Australia's Matthew Kuhnemann celebrates the wicket of Jeffrey Vandersay during day four of the first test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle , Sri Lanka, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Australia's Todd Murphy celebrates the wicket of Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne during day four of the first test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle , Sri Lanka, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A series of separate meetings between American, Russian and Ukrainian interlocutors entered their third day on Tuesday as U.S. negotiators shuttled back to discussions with their Ukrainian counterparts in the Saudi capital, a continuation of talks with Kyiv officials that began Sunday over a potential ceasefire in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, a Kremlin official said Tuesday that the talks between U.S. and Russian officials in Riyadh the previous day would likely lead to further contacts between Washington and Moscow, but that no concrete plans have yet been made.

The three days of meetings — which did not include direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations — are part of an attempt to hammer out details on a partial pause in the 3-year-old war in Ukraine. It has been a struggle to reach even a limited, 30-day ceasefire — which Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week -- with both sides continuing to attack each other with drones and missiles.

Russia and Ukraine have also taken differing interpretations of what a possible partial ceasefire would look like, and disagreed over what kinds of targets would be included in a pause on strikes — even after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with the leaders of both countries to advance a deal.

Yet despite the numerous sticking points — the White House has said a partial ceasefire would include ending attacks on “energy and infrastructure,” while the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure” — attempts to secure safe commercial shipping in the Black Sea appeared to garner support in principle from both parties, though no specific agreements have been announced.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday told the country’s state-run Channel One TV station that the Russian and U.S. delegations in Riyadh had discussed “primarily issues of safe shipping in the Black Sea” — a major shipping corridor on which both Russia and Ukraine have ports and coastline.

Lavrov also said that Moscow is up for resuming — “in some form, acceptable to everyone” — a 2022 deal that allowed Ukraine to ship grain through the Black Sea to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger was a growing threat and high food prices had pushed more people into poverty.

The landmark Black Sea Grain initiative was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey in the summer of 2022; Moscow halted it in July 2023 until its demands to get Russian food and fertilizer to the world were met.

Serhii Leshchenko, advisor to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that U.S-Ukrainian talks in Riyadh on Sunday had included “the security of shipping and infrastructure, including safety for the (Ukrainian) ports of Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson.”

Leshchenko added that the Ukrainian delegation would brief Zelenskyy following renewed talks on Tuesday with the U.S. delegation, adding: “Ukraine is ready to support initiatives that will make diplomacy a means of pressure to compel Russia to end the war.”

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the the outcome of the U.S-Russia talks in Riyadh “has been reported in the capitals” and was currently being “analyzed” by Moscow and Washington, but that the Kremlin has no plans to release further details of what was discussed to the public.

“We’re talking about technical negotiations, negotiations with immersion in details," Peskov said, adding that while there are currently no plans for Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to speak, such a conversation could be quickly organized if the need arises.

“There is an understanding that the contacts will continue, but there is nothing concrete at the moment,” Peskov said. He added that that there are no plans to hold a three-way meeting between Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine.

Senior Russian lawmaker Grigory Karasin, who took part in the Russia-U.S. talks in Riyadh on Monday, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the conversation was “very interesting, difficult, but quite constructive.”

“We were at it all day from morning until late at night,” Karasin was quoted by the agency as saying on Tuesday.

Speaking about the war in Ukraine, Karasin said Moscow’s and Washington’s positions don’t always align, but that the two parties will continue to look for ways to cooperate, as there is now an understanding that cooperation is necessary to resolve the conflict. The lawmaker added that talks between expert groups from Russia and the U.S. could continue.

The number of people injured Monday in a Russian missile strike on the center of the Ukrainian city of Sumy rose to 101 people including 23 children, according to the Sumy regional administration.

The strike on Sumy, across the border from Russia’s Kursk region which was partially occupied by Ukraine since August, hit residential buildings and a school, which had to be evacuated due to the attack.

Meanwhile, Russian forces launched one ballistic missile and 139 long-range strike and decoy drones into Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. Those attacks affected seven regions of Ukraine.

Two people were injured after drone debris fell on a warehouse in the Poltava region, administration head Volodymyr Kohut wrote on Telegram Tuesday, while two people were injured outside the city of Zaporizhzhia, according to the head of the region.

One man suffered injuries after a Russian drone attack in Kherson, city administration head Roman Mrochko wrote on Telegram Tuesday.

Associated Press writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a paramedic evacuates an elderly resident whose house was hit by Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a psychologist works with residents of houses which were hit by a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)