[interviewer] What's the greatest Australian side you've ever seen?
Um...
I mean, probably the early 2000s. That's what I grew up watching.
Probably my most vivid memory is that '05, '06, '07.
We had seven or eight legends of the game.
Hayden, Langer, Ponting.
[Head] Gilchrist, McGrath, Vaughan.
They just were different level, weren't they?
[Cummins] They won in India, they won in England.
Just that test team that no matter where they go in the world, they can adapt.
That's the gold standard. That's what you aspire to.
The worth of the modern test team is largely taken offshore.
For Australian teams, that has been at its most difficult on the subcontinent.
Sri Lanka isn't a world power in test cricket,
but they are fearsomely hard to beat at home.
If you're going to become a great team, these are the wins
that become the markers along the way.
This is an early defining period,
the Cummins' era.
[Cummins] My love of books started as a kid just reading fiction.
Mum and Dad always read books.
So summer holidays, I'm one of five kids piled in the car, and all of us
would have a different book, which, looking back, we were actually dream kids.
[chuckles]
Harry Potter, classic, I loved.
I would just read the first book through to seven,
go back to the first through to seven, just constantly.
Like every other kid, I wanted to be at Hogwarts.
These are the books that just keep highlighting,
even Principles by Ray Dalio,
that everyone's really different, and that's a good thing.
I feel with each book, it just kind of helps shape you a little bit,
even if you don't remember the specifics.
It just kind of changes my thinking a bit.
So I love the books that change your... will change my kind of biases.
I think I hardly have any cricket books.
I think a lot of... the kind of the leader I'd like to be,
or even just the person I'd like to be, comes from outside of cricket.
I think one of the... some of the books that really gel to me
was actually kind of the scientific books.
So like, Bill Bryson, History of Everything
or Richard Dawkins, Greatest Show on Earth.
I was reading them thinking,
"Wow, we're really insignificant in the world."
It's been here around for billions of years.
We always think we're the centre of the universe. Um...
Whereas, you realise there's a whole big world out there.
We're a tiny little part of it, so...
[narrator] Sri Lanka is going through an unprecedented economic crisis.
President Rajapaksa tried to keep the country afloat,
but his policies failed.
They blame him and his government for the mess their country's in.
There are shortages of food, fuel, and other essentials.
The struggles of Sri Lankan's people still goes on.
And all over the country, life is incredibly hard.
[Cummins] This is a country in crisis,
and we're playing something so insignificant.
We're just hitting a ball around. Bowling a ball.
[Marsh] I wasn't that keen to go, but that wasn't on safety grounds.
That was purely just seeing a country that's on its knees.
Like, this didn't feel right.
[narrator] Anger is being felt right across the nation.
People have been protesting for the past three months.
[Sangakkara] I think the tour going ahead was very, very good.
And Sri Lanka needs tourism.
It needs for the country to keep functioning and bringing people together.
The people you meet were saying that they were so thankful we came,
gave them a break from the realness of life
to be able to just watch cricket for a few hours,
which, uh, they obviously love.
Thank you.
[indistinct chatter]
Australia brought optimism after the series in Pakistan,
but there's a hiccup.
Travis Head has a hamstring injury heading into the first test,
and Australia has an awkward choice to make.
Does it stick with its incumbent,
or does it bring in Glenn Maxwell for the mission?
I sort of have an inkling that they might add me to the squad late.
We sort of got towards the end of the ODI series,
and I was speaking to Aaron Finch, we had a team event.
And I was chatting to him, I was, "Uh, I wonder if I'm staying."
He goes, "Well, the coach is just there. Why don't you ask him?"
I said, "Oh, what are the chances?" And he goes...
"Um, there's 99% chance you're staying."
And right at that moment... I cried.
Like, happy tears. Like, just...
I couldn't... I actually couldn't believe that I was
back around the test squad again after, what was it, five years out of it?
[commentator] That's how he get started. That's six, surely.
[commentator 1] He comes again! This one is hit even better.
Oh! Shot of the series! Don't worry about that!
The Big Show is probably... he's unbelievable in the short form.
Oh, I think he's a massive X factor.
[Hazlewood] The way he plays... [indistinct] at times.
You always think you're still in the game with Maxi playing.
[commentator 2] A six for 100, and a win for the Aussies.
I love that bloke. He loves playing cricket for Australia.
He's so desperate to wear his baggy green one more time.
There's a sense that he hasn't completely fulfilled himself
at test level, and he'd like to.
Test cricket...
It's been frustrating. Had an opportunity,
felt like I grabbed a hold of it, and then, um...
Got binned off pretty quickly.
And that was pretty hard to take. Really hard to take.
[indistinct chatter]
[Hills] Uh, so, we're at this selection.
What are we... Who's our best... [indistinct]
Just an update, just catching up with Heady...
the crux of that conversation is that... day one of the test will be
day eight of a two-week injury.
Um, there's...
There's gonna be risk associated with... if he plays.
So Jonesy and Dock are pretty...
They're not super comfortable, are they, with Heady playing? Really?
[McDonald] Now, Jonesy also has said that he may rule him out,
and he's happy to do that.
So he'll get to a point where this is way too much risk.
But at the moment, because he's tracked so well, it's like...
there's a lot of risk, but he's tracking well.
Because what we don't want to do, what we're talking about here,
my biggest fear is going with ten men. Day one.
So...
I mean, I...
I think, it's Heady or Maxi.
That's... smart game. Thank you.
I was actually quite comfortable with, you know what, test career's done.
Guys in there are doing a good job, and then you get a bit of hope.
I don't know, I sort of... I think I'd come to grips with those emotions.
I think the fact that there's still that little bit of unknown, like...
Um...
Like, with the fitness test tomorrow...
Yeah, he's probably going to get through it.
Yeah, he's gonna be fine.
Just the wallowing. Self-pity.
Always used to hold in my emotions and hold in, um...
Hold in information, what was going on in my life, and...
because I hated being public all the time. I hated being in the limelight.
So I just tried to basically fake everything I did.
2019, I went through depression
and took time off from the game,
and that was on the back of 18 long months
of trying to do everything right by everyone else.
It just basically just drained me, just wore me down, and, um...
I was basically just a shell of myself.
Who would have thought, eh? Who would have bloody thought?
When I put my hand up and said I was struggling,
if I hadn't let it go, a couple of weeks later,
who knows where I would have been? That could have been the end.
I could've just...
would have had enough and walked away, and that would have been it.
One of the big things I changed after 2019 was,
any time I had something just niggling me or on my mind,
I'd get someone into my room, any player, coach, whatever it is,
or go meet someone somewhere and just have a chat.
And as soon as you actually get those words out
and you're not sort of holding them in,
it can be a sort of just a relief off your shoulders.
And I think having a lot more guys in the squad that I feel
probably more open to talking to has helped that.
I've not done a hamstring before, so I wasn't until the day before
when I had to get the full speed. I was nervous getting to that stage.
That would've been the first time I was fully going,
and if it was gonna go, it was gonna go then.
And if it did, that was the series done.
It's horrible, 'cause you're watching...
Well, you're concentrating on your net session.
You can see him doing the sprints.
You're looking for a limp, you're looking, sort of, "How's he going?"
Like, "Is he all right?" Everyone knows what's going on.
Everyone knows why I'm there.
Ready? Two, one, go. Come on, Heady.
Come on, mate. Get the bat down.
So, everything's in order, mate? That's good.
Yeah, sounds good. Thank you. Thanks, man.
[indistinct chatter]
That was one of the most heart-breaking things that I reckon I've gone through.
And, um...
And as I said, they made the right selection call 100%.
But to sort of just let yourself believe that after five years
you're about to play another test for your country,
and I let myself start to think of the fairy tale,
and it's going to be awesome,
and it just got taken away.
It hurts.
But I'll be giving it every last dying breath
to try and play another one. And...
Who knows?
[Sangakkara] Galle has always made life very difficult
for any visiting team
because of the fact that we dominate sides and spin works.
Against most international sides, it's been a happy hunting ground.
[interviewer] What were your memories of the 2016 Sri Lankan Tour?
Fuck. Shit.
[commentator] Oh, he's bowled him! What a hammer blow!
2016 tour? What tour?
[commentator 1] Got him!
[commentator 2] And Australia in tatters.
[commentator 1] Sri Lanka slicing through the Aussie batting.
You know, their spin bowlers were just class.
And our batters weren't good enough. As simple as that.
[commentator 1] Got him!
Memories were horrible.
I was getting beaten both sides of the bat with the spinning ball.
It's just not adapting quick enough to the conditions.
So, like, this is the way I play, and this is how I'm gonna play.
And it just doesn't work in Sri Lanka.
[commentator 1] Bowled him!
[Khawaja] Some tours just give you, like, nightmares.
There's some tours you just look back on and you're like "Eugh!"
[commentator 2] That's a toss... Yeah! That's given. That's it.
It's all over! Sri Lanka win the series!
[commentator 1] It's a three-nil whitewash.
[commentator 1] So the news from the centre is that
Sri Lanka have won the toss and they're going to bat first.
This pitch looks dry.
It's going to take a lot of turn, and it's going to be
a huge challenge for the batters.
[commentator] It wasn't going to be long. And here he is, Nathan Lyon.
[crowd exclaims]
[commentator] Oh, wow! Oh, wow!
Gaz came on, and first ball he bowled,
and hit Carey flush in the face.
Like, if he didn't have the helmet on, he would have...
[mimics explosion sound]
And I just, like, walked up to him. Like, "You all right?"
He's like, "Yeah. Holy crap." I'm like, "Yeah. Welcome to Galle."
[commentator 1] Sri Lanka lose another.
[commentator] Silly point.
[commentator 1] They're asking for a catch. That's given.
[commentator] Brilliant.
[commentator 1] Another ripping delivery from Swepson.
[commentator 2] That's a lovely catch.
-Catch! -[commentator 1] Whoa, brilliant!
Seeing how tough the Sri Lankans found it kind of made it even more clear
about how we had to go about playing our cricket.
[commentator 1] That's the end of the Sri Lankan innings.
These conditions, they won't be easy for the Australians. It will pose challenges.
[Agar] The confidence was definitely there after the bowling innings,
but we knew that that pitch was gonna take some serious spin.
We knew it was gonna be really difficult.
[commentator 1] That has to be. That has to be. And it is.
Against Sri Lanka, as soon as you lose a wicket,
everything changes.
[commentator 1] That's what this surface can do.
[indistinct chatter]
I fucking keep missing those!
[objects clattering]
[indistinct yelling]
[commentator 1] Marnus sweeps. Straight to the fielder!
And he can't believe it. Marnus departs.
[indistinct muttering]
...shit.
[commentator] He has trouble. He has trouble!
And that will be out. That will be out.
Steve Smith is absolutely furious. Livid.
Jeez. Um... Yeah, well, it wasn't ideal.
It was a difficult surface.
And, you know, given that, um, you know,
I'm probably the most experienced player on those conditions,
um, getting out without sort of being challenged by the bowler,
um, probably took me a little bit longer to get over this one.
[commentator 1] He's on his way back after scoring six.
Australia, three for 83.
[Smith] Fucking run... [bleep].
[indistinct shouting]
[indistinct muttering]
Fuck me.
For a batsman who sets himself such prodigiously high standards as Smith,
it's doubly confronting.
Having gone to Sri Lanka and failed as a captain,
I think he did feel as though he had unfinished business.
[commentator] And play will be called after the first day.
[Khawaja] I remember sitting here in 2016 and feeling like absolute death.
The pressure is on you. You make one mistake, you're out.
When you're young, you are a bit worried.
Don't complicate it man, show intent. Create some luck.
[Green] Yeah, yeah, of course.
Show intent, just keep showing intent.
The times I've struggled here is when I haven't shown intent.
I've gotten out once, got out twice and shat myself,
no intent, and then its game over.
A 50 out there is massive,
if you're getting 50 its massive.
If everyone just gets like 20 and 30's, that's massive, don't aim too big.
That's awesome. Thank you.
[Green] Myrtle!
I'll be going out for three-and-a-half years?
We both grew up in the same area.
A lot of my friends actually call him the Big Friendly Giant.
[laughs]
Yeah. He's an emotional kind of guy.
And it's funny hearing what it's like on the inside. Maybe not as it seems.
-The tail... He's happy. [indistinct] -Yay!
[Redwood] So this is Little Myrtle. She is six-and-a-half months old,
and she is a Cavoodle.
We picked Myrtle because she was the one in the litter that used to whine the most.
So, Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter.
[laughs]
Cricket's a really funny game where there could be things
kind of out of your control that you can't do much about.
And, Myrtle, shake. Paw.
Cam reached out quite early on.
Pretty much as soon as you got the call up for Australia
to, like, a mindfulness courage.
Whoo! Myrtle! Myrtle, ready?
Anyway that you can kind of improve your off-field, hopefully helps on-field,
because there's not much about international cricket that's calm.
Speaking to the mindfulness coach or to the psychologist was probably
a way that I kind of thought I could kind of help with that.
Anytime you kind of find a bit of space for yourself, I think, is really key.
I think Cam's doing really well.
He's got, like, lots of support systems in place
and has dealt with the kind of rapid rise quite...
quite well.
[man] Everybody's talking about this young kid over in WA, Cameron Green.
[man 1] He's essentially Bradman and Lillee.
[man 2] This could be the player we haven't had since Keith Miller.
[man 3] He's been one of those guys
that's dominated his age group all the way through.
[man 4] We are seeing the emergence of a tremendously significant player.
[man 5] He's going to be a lethal weapon.
[man 6] The best batting talent I've seen since Ricky Ponting.
Talent like this doesn't come along very often.
Cameron Green's been a prodigy from earliest days.
He looks a little bit like a sort of an overgrown Boy Scout.
It's only when he kind of gets a bat or a ball in his hand
that you see the incredible possibilities.
[Green] It's a game with ten teammates, but it's really a game in yourself.
No one's bowling the ball for you, and no one's batting for you.
It's kind of all up to you to perform.
Debuting relatively young at 21,
I think you kind of feel all the eyes watching you.
I think it still takes a while to kind of feel that sense
of being comfortable at this level. I think that's still progressing.
Yeah, I think it's a long way off feeling comfortable at this level.
Um, yeah.
[Cummins] I just try to remind myself how young Cameron Green is.
He doesn't have a lot of professional cricket behind him.
I've been there. I've been playing for Australia and thinking,
"I've never played on a wicket anything close like this before."
[commentator 1] Australia still trail Sri Lanka by over 100.
At the moment, everything in the favour of the bowlers.
Clearly, the lead that Australia could achieve was going to be crucial
to the overall outcome.
And a lot of the burden settled on Green's shoulders.
It's so hard to do it, honestly. Until someone's gone out there with a bat,
playing for Australia in the middle of the wicket,
you have no idea what it feels like.
-[players exclaim] -[commentator] Oh, that's nicely bowled.
It was chaos. It was absolute chaos out there.
[commentator] Batters have had to deal with plenty here.
It's almost like playing on a beach at times.
[Maxwell] It could go at your head, at your toes,
or everywhere in between.
[commentator 1] Lot to look forward to for this young man, Cameron Green.
His test average of 36. Fine all-rounder.
But these conditions, they will test him.
[players appealing]
[Green] I went out with a pretty clear plan to just use my feet.
I think the ball was spinning a bit too far
if you weren't quite to the ball. So I think all of us kind of thought,
"Geez, I think we need to sweep to survive."
[commentator 1] This time he tries to sweep.
[commentator] Enormous appeal.
Might have hit him just outside the line.
[Green] Probably haven't swept much, you know.
Maybe swept one or two balls in my professional career before then.
[commentator 1] Yep. He's come out with his broom.
You know, there's an element of risk, I think, to sweeping the ball
when it's spinning away, um, you know,
particularly, I guess, the way he was playing it.
I think you kind of have to tell yourself, "I have to fully commit to this."
Yeah, you kind of just got to be brave.
[commentator 1] He's hit that nicely. Right between the two fielders.
Cameron Green.
He was able to just employ a strategy that was hard to stop.
On a... In conditions that were almost impossible to do that.
[commentator] He's here to play, Cameron Green.
The character he showed there, to just go, "No, this is what I'm going to do.
I'm going to trust it the whole way." And that's it.
[commentator 2] Swept behind square leg, that's a boundary.
[Labuschagne] I think that was a moment that I was like,
"Geez, this team is moving forward."
[commentator 1] Yep, there it is. He has hit it so hard.
Now, this is a half-century he will cherish.
He's batted Australia back into the test match.
[man] Every run that he accumulated, you could see the Sri Lankans
growing more and more dejected.
They could sense the test match slipping out of their control.
It's not too often you can see a young kid come out on a difficult wicket
and score 77, which was probably worth about 140 on that wicket.
This boy's gonna be the fucking best player ever. [laughs]
It's his first tour to Sri Lanka, and he's just adapted and found a way.
You could see before he even faces up,
you just know that he's comfortable in his own skin to play the way he wants.
And that's the most rewarding thing for a captain.
When you see the team humming, you know, playing their own way, it's awesome.
[crowd cheering]
Cam Green's innings sets the game up.
It's a huge win in that first test match.
To conquer the conditions, that is a moment in time for this team.
[cheering]
[commentator 1] Australia will celebrate. It's a comprehensive victory for them.
Just one win away from a series win.
[Lyon] Green, your first man of the match for Australia.
There's going to be a lot more to come, you bat and ball.
But, mate, so incredibly proud of you on the way you went out there
and achieved what you did. So well done, mate.
[all cheering]
Cheers to many. Cheers, boy.
Young man, have yourself a lager.
Well done, champ. First time's a fluke, mate.
Second time's consistency.
Thanks.
[all laughing]
That's congratulations from David Warner.
-Let's stay humble. -I'll take that.
I think the game was a good one for him moving forward.
He's now got that belief that he can play that game,
he can do that in those big moments.
There was a validation of where we are at as a cricket team
and that, yeah, we are good enough to beat anyone on our day.
[excited chatter]
[Smith] The way I like to go about my business
is preparing really well and doing everything I can
to ensure that I give myself the best chance to be successful.
What are you doing over there?
Replacing my thumb pieces.
With what?
Taking the foam out and putting, like, softer foam in.
Oh!
Does it help?
Feels nice.
You are a weird person.
-I am, correct. -Yes.
Tell you what, it's a process when you do it to every pair of gloves.
Especially when you have 3,000 pairs...
That's correct.
[Smith] I'm always looking at things, looking at ways to improve.
Reflecting and being honest with yourself is, you know,
part of growth and getting better.
Back in 2019, in the Ashes, I was in one of those spots
when you sort of know that when you walk out,
you're almost going to have success.
[commentator] Back-to-back hundreds in the same test match for Steven Smith.
It's difficult to be in that space all the time.
I don't know why. I wish I had the answer.
[commentator 1] Bowled him! Perfect bowling!
[commentator 2] ...three in the first hour.
[commentator 3] Steve Smith's gone for a globe.
And Australia in all sorts of trouble here.
Every test that he didn't score 100, for him, that eats away at him.
[Smith] It can be difficult to turn it around sometimes
when you're not hitting the ball as you'd like to
or you're not making the decisions you'd like to.
I critique everything I do.
Some days I'm just like, "No, I don't feel like I'm moving well.
I'm not picking the ball up well.
Things aren't feeling quite as good today."
I think Steve is probably a victim of his own greatness, if you like.
He's been such a good player for so long that people just expect that.
So if there's stages where he's not scoring 100 after 100 after 100,
people ask you question.
And I think at times he probably puts that pressure on himself as well.
Someone like a Steve Smith... He's his own best coach.
Just leave him to it. Get out of the way.
Mate, if you need anything from me, come and chat to me, but go do your thing.
-[Smith] How are we, crew? -[man] Here he is.
[Smith] For years, people were always like,
you need something to take your mind off outside of cricket.
And for a while there, it was literally just cricket, that's it.
But I think as I got a bit older, it was nice to delve into
a few different things and take my mind off the game.
So the testing with the cold brew went well?
Uh, it was outstanding. I thought it was, you know, really smooth.
They did tests on, like, one-to-four ratio, I think,
one-to-three and one-to-six, and the one-to-four was outstanding.
[Smith] There was no oat milks out here in 2018 that I could see
and it was a trend that I thought that was going to come to Australia.
There's so many oat milks out there now.
I've always been interested in investing and things like that.
I've been involved in a few companies, but to start one on my own,
it's something that's really exciting.
[man] I think that they can get up to 45 days shelf life.
-[man 1] Absolutely. -[man] On a chilled product.
-That was what they said, wasn't it? 45? -[man 1] Forty-five days. Yeah, 45 days.
Which is amazing, which is far longer than, I suppose, a standard...
coffee cold brew.
That's a major competitive advantage for us.
-Huge -It's good. Exciting.
[Smith] In 2018, whilst it was difficult not being able
to play the sport I loved for that year,
I was able to learn different things and grow as an individual,
which I think, you know, held me in good state for the future as well.
I think we've got an order. Do we?
[crowd clamouring]
[man] It's not going well here in Sri Lanka.
A brutal situation which shows no sign of abating.
It's only getting worse here.
[commentator 1] Sri Lanka. Nowhere near their best.
They've had four players rubbed out with COVID-19 this week.
So a couple of test debuts.
Australia will almost certainly win this test match,
barring something remarkable happening.
In terms of debutants, I think, the pressure would have been enormous.
[Hills] Jayasuriya. Prabath Jayasuriya.
[Hazlewood] We didn't know much about the debutants.
We've got an analyst on tour all the time, Dene Hills,
and he'll pull out vision of Sri Lankan domestic game.
Prabath Jayasuriya
-They just brought him in. -[indistinct]
I don't know. A good question.
I'm about to find out because he's not in the original squad.
I need to have a look at him really quickly.
He's going to get a lot of skid, this guy.
Big side skid.
That's a nice ball.
I watched Jayasuriya bowl a bit before I got out there
and yeah, I really liked the seam that he was presenting.
I thought it was going to be quite challenging.
-Skidder. Wide skidder. -Faster.
That's sort of my mindset. Try and gather all the information as you can
to be as well prepared as you can be.
[commentator] Big moment in the game. Smith and Labuschagne together.
[Labuschagne] The media build-up.
Just keeps building it up like he hasn't scored 100 in this many months.
This many months. And, y'know, regardless of what players say,
it weighs on you.
[commentator 1] Down the track straight away.
Chips the shot over midwicket.
[commentator] That's good batting by Steven Smith.
From an early stage, I could sort of tell that I was on.
I wasn't very talkative to anyone.
I was just very much in my own little world.
I'm just so focused that, um, nothing else kind of matters in a way.
[commentator 1] Good use of the feet. Down the ground, that's another boundary.
[Smith] And there's really not too much thought,
I suppose, that goes in when I'm out there.
It's just turning your mind off and just reacting
to whatever comes at you and not thinking about anything, really.
It's exciting for us as players, his teammates,
because understanding...
you've seen it before, you go, "Yeah, okay, Smithy's on."
[Smith] It can be fatiguing because you're just in such a mental trance
almost the whole time and you're just so focused.
It's hard to continually get into that zone.
It's different, and it's weird, but that's what makes him
one of the best, if not the best in the world.
[commentator] Smith's not going to miss out.
He's not gonna miss out, and he doesn't.
You just know within yourself, you can feel it,
that, you know, "Today... I'm really switched on.
I'm not making mistakes."
[commentator 1] And he's got it. 100 for Steve Smith.
It's been a long wait for him.
Steve Smith back to his best.
[Smith] Always feels good scoring 100,
and it had sort of been a bit of a long time coming.
But we underscored. We needed a lot more runs in that first innings.
When you win the toss and bat in those conditions,
you've got to make a big total.
Four, five hundred and almost kill the game.
[commentator] Beautifully bowled. There it is.
[commentator 1] Travis Head's gone.
He's been bowled by Jayasuriya for 12.
Spin does the job once more.
[Head shouting] Fuck!
[commentator 1] One more wicket here,
and it could all change very, very quickly.
It's early days for Cameron Green in his test career.
Everybody standing up and taking note of his capabilities.
[appealing]
[commentator] That's a good shout for LBW. And he's given him.
[commentator 1] That's a big wicket. Cameron Green is out for four.
Australia now five down for 252. The momentum now with Sri Lanka.
[Hazlewood] I think Greenie probably...
probably puts a lot too much pressure on himself a lot of the time.
He's only a young player and he's got a lot to learn yet.
Yeah, you kind of feel like all the work you did in the first test,
you've kind of lost a bit. Um...
Potentially go back to square one.
It's a tough game.
That's the harsh reality of playing one foul shot.
It's good that people can let their emotions out, you know?
Trying to be all tough and strong is such a load of crap.
[crowd clamouring]
[man] Police in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo,
dispersed huge crowds gathered to demand the resignation
of the country's president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The Galle protesters have ambitions to storm the capital.
They can't get there.
So the cricket grounds almost accidentally becomes a centrepiece.
The protesting was literally like ten metres. It was pretty close.
[crowd clamouring]
They are storming the gates.
[man] It was so loud. It was literally just outside where they all met.
Surely he's got to go now?
The President.
[interviewer] The country itself was in turmoil.
Did it light a fire in the Sri Lankan team?
I'm sure it did.
[commentator] There you go. It's in the air. Taken. Jayasuriya.
[commentator 1] Oh! That is an excellent catch.
Five wickets for Jayasuriya on his debut.
That's on the back foot. They're asking for it.
Oh, given.
Sri Lanka have fought back really, really well
as Australia's innings comes to an end.
Steve Smith, though. He's left stranded on 145.
[Sangakkara] They were touched by what was going on around them.
And I think that kind of inspired the performances that we saw.
It was something, I think, the Australian team saw first-hand.
-[commentator 1] Oh, lovely shot. -[commentator] Just like that.
Pulled away, finds the gap, gets a boundary.
You couldn't really hear yourself think on the field, it was that loud.
[crowd chanting]
[reporter] Former Sri Lankan cricket team captain Kumar Sangakkara
shared a video, "This is for our future."
I think the Sri Lankan players themselves might have been questioning,
"Should we be playing cricket?"
But I think the support of the people in that sense to the players
showed that connection and inspired them.
[commentator 1] That's the 100! Great batting!
Dinesh Chandimal. What an innings.
[reporter] Protest leaders had warned that if Sri Lanka's prime minister
and president did not resign as promised, things would escalate.
And they did.
It all came to a head when thousands stormed
the luxury resident of their strongman president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
President Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned.
[commentator 1] Boy, he's enjoying himself. Dinesh Chandimal.
That's 500 on the board for Sri Lanka.
[Haigh] Because test match does spend such a long period,
it's long enough that a government can change.
It's extraordinary.
That just doesn't happen in any other sport. It was an epic occasion.
[firecrackers exploding]
[Labuschagne] The first few firecrackers, we were like, "Oh, that's a gunshot."
We asked Kumar, "Should we be taking cover?"
And he's like, "No, it's just firecrackers."
They're celebrating because they just took over the compound.
You got the sense when Chandimal was batting,
he was building something worthy of the occasion.
There was an additional motivation to him
rather than simply making runs and winning a test match.
[commentator 1] Again.
Two hundred. 200 for Dinesh Chandimal.
What an outstanding knock.
So Sri Lanka dismissed finally for 554. A lead of 190.
The ability of our people to withstand, to rise, to unite,
to be resilient in the face of so much hardship.
So it was wonderful to see how they reacted to it so positively.
[Labuschagne] It was certainly a pretty weird experience
to see your country in that sort of state.
The cricket sort of just kept going.
[commentator] Flips it over midwicket.
[Labuschagne] You know, no matter the situation...
[commentator 2] Nicely timed.
[Labuschagne] That batting line-up, you know,
I feel like we can win from anywhere.
[commentator 1] This opening partnership, so important.
-[commentator] Good shot. -[commentator 2] Nice use of the feet.
This stroke should give him a lot of confidence.
[commentator 1] And this is where the three spinners will come into play.
I still felt like we were right in the game.
Um, and then before you know it, bang.
[commentator 1] How close is that? How close is that? That's given.
[commentator] And he's got him again.
[commentator 2] Oh! That is huge!
[commentator] Australia is in trouble.
[Head] Doesn't take very long, and then the game's out of your reach, you know?
What the hell just happened?
[commentator 1] Oh, my God! My God!
[commentator 1] Six four Jayasuriya, 12 in the game. Sri Lanka celebrate.
It's been a magnificent performance.
It's the first time they've beaten Australia by an innings.
[Cummins] It was weird. I didn't really know what to say or what to feel.
It's just a little knock on the head. It's a little reminder. Wait a minute.
This is test cricket.
Nothing is given here. You have to earn it.
[Cummins] This was the first loss this group had had.
Some of the team aspects like being calm, being composed, were brilliant.
So they're the things that you kind of judge yourself against.
-Does it bother you? -Yeah.
When you fail,
how do you get out of that?
So I would say, don't change.
Just because you fail,
doesn't mean your processes were wrong
It was a great series to be involved in for more reasons than cricket.
[Sangakkara] The tour itself, I think,
was significant for the time that it took place
and genuinely connect with the people of Sri Lanka.
I think that shone through.
The joy that it brought the people who watched those games, who followed it,
irrespective of the hardships they were going through,
was also very, very important.
And I think cricket has found a new place in Sri Lankan society.
[commentator 1] Didn't the Sri Lankan people need this?
[Cummins] They were going through a hell of a tough time.
And the joy that the Sri Lankan team
would have brought to 'em was, no doubt, massive.
Thank you, Australia! Thank you very much. Thank you very much!
[Marsh] As disappointing as it was for us, you look back in 20 years' time,
it's pretty cool for them to do that for their country in that time.
[indistinct chatter]
[Whateley] The Langer years were about restoring Australian cricket,
but this is about the new face of Australian cricket.
It's the start of the Pat Cummins' era.
That's how this decade of cricket is going to be defined
and will take its place in the annals.
I see the Australian cricket team on a very exciting journey
to becoming, hopefully, a great team.
Cheers, Marn. Happy birthday, mate.
Best part of playing cricket is the people you do it alongside.
I love that everyone's really different.
People like Steve Smith,
who's great to our game, been doing it forever. David Warner.
These new guys, Trav Head, Carey, Marnus, Cam Green...
I think we can be as good as any other era before us.
Da-da.
That's the opportunity ahead of us.
The group's motivated, we're hungry. There's so much to play for.
[commentator] Magnificent work from Usman Khawaja.
[commentator 1] Australia have won in Pakistan.
[commentator 2] A hundred for Steve Smith.
[commentator 3] Build the man a statue!
That's all in front of us. That's what we aspire to.
Yeah. Can't wait.
[music plays]