Australia's newest Test cricketer, paceman Jackson Bird, needed only 10 deliveries to claim a maiden Test scalp as his team made a strong start to the Boxing Day Test against Sri Lanka.
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Within 65 minutes of winning the toss and choosing to bat first at the MCG Sri Lanka had lost both its openers and also its captain, Mahela Jayawardene. Each of Australia's three specialist seamers had a wicket to their name by that stage.
After Sri Lanka started so poorly, its biggest encouragement stemmed from fact that its other great batsmen, Kumar Sangakkara, remained unbeaten at lunch. The left-hander also showed a glimpse of exquisite form by crunching Mitch Johnson for three consecutive boundaries in the last 20 minutes of the session.
At lunch Sri Lanka was 3-79, with Sangakkara on 43 and Thilan Samaraweera on 10. By that stage the pair had added 42 runs for the visitors' the four wicket.
