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DARWIN, Friday - Australia held all the aces after another fascinating day at the Marrara Oval where the ball dominated over the bat for the second successive time in the first cricket Test played here.

The first two days of this extraordinary Test has witnessed three completed innings accounting for a total of 30 wickets on a pitch of variable bounce and movement, which batsmen from either team have failed to come to terms with. Thirteen wickets fell for 250 runs on the first day and 17 for 255 on the second today.

Replying to Australia's first innings total of 207, Sri Lanka were shot out for 97 - their lowest total against Australia in 17 Tests and fourth lowest outside their country.

Then Australia with a handy first innings lead of 110 were dismissed in the final over of the second day for 201 leaving Sri Lanka with the tall task of chasing 312 for victory. Three days remain in the Test and time is not consequential here.

There's plenty of them, in fact nine sessions or the equivalent of 270 overs to get the runs. The onus is now on the Sri Lankan batsmen.

If they are to make any headway towards that total, they will need a solid start from the openers and runs from their top three in the order Atapattu, Jayasuriya and Sangakkara. If not they can kiss goodbye to the Test. The way the game has gone so far, it is very unlikely to last the distance.

Darren Lehmann scored his second half-century of the match and Adam Gilchrist held the innings together with a valuable 80, half of them in boundaries, which has all but taken the game away from Sri Lanka's grasp.

The acting captain helped raise the total from a dismal 77-5 to 201 before Australia were all out. Gilchrist's fighting knock lasted 181 minutes and was ended in the penultimate over before the close by a smart piece of fielding from Mahela Jayawardene at slip.

His backhand flick to Sangakkara as Gilchrist stepped out to drive Jayasuriya and missed the line, saw the Australian skipper out of his ground. The manner in which Gilchrist batted showed how much the pitch had eased later in the day in comparison to what it offered in the morning and afternoon sessions of play.

Even Michael Kasprowicz felt comfortable batting with his captain for over an hour and adding 47 runs for the ninth wicket.

Glenn McGrath did what Chaminda Vaas had done against Australia on the first day. The 34-year-old paceman made a wonderful return to Test cricket following a frustrating 12-month lay-off to an ankle injury with figures of five for 37 in 15 overs as Sri Lanka's batsmen failed to show the class to tough it out against the nature of the pitch and the quality of the bowling they were up against.

McGrath's magnificent effort saw him pick up his 24th five-for in an innings haul, which took him past Indian fast bowler Kapil Dev's tally of 434 wickets in the all-time list. He is now in fourth spot behind Muttiah Muralitharan (527), Shane Warne (520) and Courtney Walsh (519) with 435 wickets from 96 Tests.

Jason Gillespie who took his 200th Test wicket when he dismissed Sangakkara on the first day provided good support for McGrath ending with two for 18 off 13 overs.

Leg-spinner Shane Warne wrapped up the Sri Lankan innings with a spell of 3 for 19 in 35 balls to move seven wickets closer to Muralitharan's world record mark of 527.

Sri Lanka who resumed at 43-3 had their batting in shambles inside the first hour's play. Australia's experienced pair McGrath and Gillespie proved irresistible as they reduced them to 59-7. Because of the early start at 9.30 a.m., the dew on the pitch provided enough movement to make life uncomfortable for the batsmen.

For most of morning and a part of the afternoon the sun failed to appear and that retained the moisture on the pitch longer than usual which made life a batting misery for the Lankans.

The Australians in their second innings also suffered the same fate until well into the afternoon when Lehmann and Martyn and then later Gilchrist and Kasprowicz found batting conditions more to their liking.

Gillespie snared Jayawardene as early as the second over of the day and after that it was a steady procession of batsmen leaving the crease with edges behind the wicket.

A brief liaison between Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Chandana who added 26 for the eight wicket ensured Sri Lanka did not get bowled out for their lowest total in Test cricket - 71. After McGrath's brilliant morning spell of three for nine from eight overs, Warne took over the attack to bring the innings to a swift end.

Then Vaas was back in action again to put up another clinical display of left-arm fast bowling as he snapped up two early wickets to have Australia reeling at 14-3.

Two great catches by Kumar Sangakkara behind the wickets sent back openers Langer and Hayden and then an exceptional catching effort from Dilshan who dived in front of first slip made Elliott's return to Test cricket a miserable when he was dismissed without scoring to add to his solitary run in the first innings.

Vaas' classic display as a left-arm swing bowler and his success against Australia's heavily laden line up of left-handers prompted Australian coach John Buchanan to go on record saying that his country is in dire need of a bowler of his type. Australia has not had one since the great Alan Davidson, although lanky Bruce Reid was the last such bowler to play for them.

Buchanan was quoted in the 'Northern Territory News' saying: "It is something that's gone out of our game. Someone who can swing a ball. Chaminda Vaas is a medium-pacer and it's wonderful to seem him performing at Test level."

A half-century stand between Damien Martyn and first innings top scorer Lehmann eased the pressure a little bit on the Australian batting. But Malinga, dubbed 'Gunslinger' by the Australian press because of his slinging bowling action, struck twice in his first spell to send back both batsmen who went edging catches to Sangakkara.

Martyn made a sedate seven in 65 minutes and Lehmann scored his second half-century of the match making 51 in 82 minutes (8 fours).

Sri Lanka's ground fielding and catching was of the highest standard and not seen for a long time since the heady World Cup days.

Sangakkara was outstanding behind the stumps and the catches he took to dismiss Langer and Lehmann must have made former Australian wicket-keeper Ian Healy proud.

Healy gave Sangakkara some useful tips on wicket-keeping when he came to Zimbabwe as a TV commentator some of which Sangakkara may have found useful, judging from today's display behind the wickets.

Atpattu handled his bowlers well using them in short spells to keep them fresh and Malinga was once again impressive finishing with figures of four for 42 which gave him six in the match on his debut.

Australia first innings 207 
(Darren Lehmann 57; Chaminda
Vaas 5-31).

SRI LANKA first innings (overnight 43-3)


M.Atapattu b McGrath			4
S.Jayasuriya lbw b McGrath		8
K.Sangakkara lbw b Gillespie		2
M.Jayawardene c Langer b Gillespie	14
N.Zoysa c Gilchrist b McGrath		12
T.Samaraweera c Gilchrist b McGrath	1
T.Dilshan not out 			17
R.Arnold c Elliott b McGrath		6
U.Chandana c Gilchrist b Warne		14
C.Vaas c Hayden b Warne		5
L.Malinga c Gillespie b Warne		0

EXTRAS (lb-7 nb-7)			14

TOTAL (all out, 41.5 overs)		97

Fall of wickets: 1-10 2-20 3-33 4-47 5-50 6-51 7-59 8-85
9-91

Bowling: McGrath 15-4-37-5 (nb-5), Gillespie 13-4-18-2,
Kasprowicz 7-1-15-0 (nb-2), Warne 6.5-1-20-3


J.Langer c Sangakkara b Vaas		10
M.Hayden c Sangakkara b Zoysa		2
M.Elliott c Dilshan b Vaas		0
D.Martyn c Sangakkara b Malinga		7
D.Lehmann c Sangakkara b Malinga	51
S.Katich c Dilshan b Chandana		15
A.Gilchrist run out			80
S.Warne lbw b Malinga			1
J.Gillespie c Samaraweera b Chandana	16
M.Kasprowicz c & b Malinga		15
G.McGrath not out			0

EXTRAS (lb-3 nb-1)			4

TOTAL (all out, 63.1 overs)		201

Fall of wickets: 1-12 2-12 3-14 4-64 5-77 6-1114 7-127 8-154 9-201

Bowling: Vaas 14-4-51-2, Zoysa 16-3-57-1, Malinga
15.1-3-42-4 (nb-1), Jayasuriya 6-3-9-0, Chandana 11-1-30-2, Arnold 1-0-9-0.