KANDY: Having arrived in Sri Lanka with much optimism, Australia was on the verge of a major reality check as they slipped towards defeat by lunch on the final day of the first Test.

Resuming needing 185 to win at the Pallekele Stadium with seven wickets in hand, the world champions were humbled by spin, and had fallen to 7-141 by the first break, still needing 127 for victory.

Skipper Steve Smith had shaped as the potential match-winner when he posted his 17th Test half-century but he fell on the cusp of lunch when he was deceived by a skidding delivery from veteran left-arm spinner, Rangana Herath, leaving the tourists at 6-140.

Mitchell Starc then fell right on the break when he handed left-arm wrist spinner Lakshan Sandikan an easy caught and bowled.

They may be ranked number one in the world, but the Australians have much work to do in this three-Test series if they are to avoid adding to their recent poor record on the sub-continent.

The hosts began the day believing the budding partnership between Adam Voges and Smith loomed as their biggest threat. They were able to nullify this not long after play had started 45 minutes late because of the threat of rain. 

The manner of Voges' dismissal, when he jammed a ball back to Herath, surprised himself, and surely most of the Sri Lankans, who had barely appealed the diving catch, thinking it had been a bump ball.

Even the veteran spinner had appealed to umpire Richard Kettleborough in hushed, almost apologetic tones, rather than as a man who believed he had made a crucial incision.

Kettleborough then sought the counsel of his fellow umpire, and opted to review the call. Replays would show the ball had flown off the bottom of Voges' angled bat and had not touched the ground.

Herath was given one more over before Sri Lankan captain Angelo Matthews then made the odd decision to remove his key weapon – a man who thrives on long spells.

The left-arm wrist spin of Sandakan loomed as a difficult proposition, and he had a strong leg side field to attack the Australian skipper. Only three men were on the off-side – at slip, mid-off, and a deep point. This was done in order to seek a catch on the leg side from his stock ball, and even to tempt Smith into charging at Sandakan's wrong-un, in the hope he would mistime an inside edge.

Smith continued to attack with his feet, following through on his pre-match declaration to try and subdue the spinners early in his innings.

Batting coach Stuart Law had called on Mitch Marsh to play his natural game, much as he did in the first innings with a composed 31 before he misread Sandakan's wrong-un.

He began well, straight driving Herath for four. While his power game can be seen as a weakness, it will generate plenty of runs – regardless of the conditions.

Marsh and Smith appeared at ease against the off-spin of Dilruwan Perera and Dhananjaya de Silva, prompting Mathews to recall Herath after Smith had notched his half-century off 160 balls, with the one boundary.

Herath, the only Test cricketer still in action who made his debut in the 1990s, immediately rediscovered his tight line – as Marsh would find when a quicker delivery skidded in to his front pad. Umpire Sundaram Ravi rejected the appeal but the television replay showed the ball would have hit halfway up middle stump.

As the pressure rose, four balls later Kettleborough was again proven wrong, this time when he agreed Smith, having found himself stuck on the crease, had tickled an edge behind off Sandakan. The captain immediately called for a review, and despite there being no hot-spot or snickometer in this series, replays were conclusive enough to show there had been a gap between bat and ball.

Herath, though, would provide the match-turning breakthrough in the next over when, again, a flat delivery skidded on and beat Smith's bat. This time there was no doubt, and Australia's hopes took another turn for the worst.