Smith and Carey give Australia upper hand in a partnership that was more than the sum of its parts.

The Australian pair help Australia to a dominant position in difficult conditions

Steve Smith and Alex Carey were simply superb. Like a pair of road cyclists, they created holes in the air for the other to slipstream, urging each other to greater achievement, profiting in conditions where most would perish. Together they compiled 239 runs across 236 minutes from 331 balls.

SRI LANKA 257

AUSTRALIA 3-330

Lead: 73

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And in the 30th over, with the baggy green atop his head and the collar popped, he reversed. It stopped us in our tracks. Nobody could remember seeing such a shot.

Before lunch he’d attempted a sweep and that was the first one of those for some years. After it, with Ramesh Mendis bowled, he went played the less orthodox of those cross-bat shots and the ball ran fine down to the unprotected boundary.

The Sri Lankans were as surprised as anyone. Who knew he could do that?

Just the other day Steve Smith had said that one of the advantages of not wearing a helmet when he bats was that it reminded him not to sweep.