A dominant opening day for Australia at Pallekele ran more or less to the script the tourists were hoping to stick with. Features included an even bowling performance, alert fielding and the foundations of a batting platform set, before rain ended the day ahead of schedule.In rounding Sri Lanka up for a mere 117, they also avoided falling behind in the match as they did against Pakistan in the UAE in 2014. This means Steven Smiths side are in the position they are most comfortable with - driving the game forward from a position of strength, rather than scrapping and fighting to stay in it. From that vantage point, Australias aggression looks dashing and purposeful rather than reckless, and opponents under the cosh tend to stay there.Nevertheless, no day is ever quite perfect, and there was one area in which the Australians will be wanting to tighten up at later stages. This is in the tightness of their opening batsmen, David Warner and Joe Burns, both of whom lost their wickets early on to moments of looseness and/or imprecision. The subsequent partnership between captain Steven Smith and Usman Khawaja represented the most measured batting of the day, and showed what players on both sides should be looking to do on a pitch that has offered just enough help to the bowlers, both pace and spin. The surface made the toss more intriguing than most in this part of the world, and it was here that Australia pulled the first of numerous correct reins.Team selection: It had always seemed likely that Australia would plump for twin spin in this series, but given how rarely such a team has been selected in the recent past - just three times have they used a full-time spin tandem since the last visit to Sri Lanka in 2011 - there may have been temptation to divert from that path. Certainly, Pallekele was always going to be the strip offering most assistance to the faster men, as it momentarily did five years ago for Ryan Harris and Trent Copeland.Sri Lankas players were known to be unhappy about starting here rather than Galles more obviously spinning track, and the ground staff here had clearly tried to dry out their pitch. But the balance provided by Steve OKeefe was useful to Smith, while Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc operated in shorter spells. All the while, Mitchell Marshs lively fast-medium remained in reserve, the days lopsided measure best illustrated by the fact that he was not even required to bowl.Intimidation: Before this match, Smith had spoken of the fact that while Australia were playing in conditions they had often found difficult, they were also playing an opponent short of experience and confidence. This meant it was important to get on the front foot early, demonstrating through performance and body language who was in charge. Sri Lankas players had been spared the supposedly demoralising sight of the Test Championship mace being presented to Smith in public on match eve, but they could not so readily avoid the Australians in the middle.By way of verbals, Kusal Mendis was nearly goaded into reviewing his lbw, which replays showed to be smashing into middle stump. By way of tactics, the focus upon Angelo Mathews was backed up by a none-too-subtle field setting, leg gully and short leg posted when Mitchell Starc ran in at him. It works too: Mathews very nearly offered an edge first ball, then was tentative enough to prod OKeefe to slip soon after. At no stage were Sri Lanka made to feel like they belonged in this company.Hazlewood: Perhaps it is his SCG upbringing, perhaps his commendable straightness when in good rhythm, or perhaps his height, but Hazlewood was, by a distance, the most impressive Australian bowler on the day. Where Starc was fast but slightly off-peak, Hazlewood worked away steadily, finding his range and then a probing line and length to challenge all batsmen.Initially, it was seam movement on a slightly tacky surface that worked in his favour, seaming one back to pin Mendis, then shading one away from Kaushal Silva. There was a little more swing for Hazlewood in his second spell, and he saved his best delivery for Dinesh Chandimal, a gateway server that had Sri Lankas most accomplished batsman playing with a slightly closed bat face to snick behind to Peter Nevill. A couple of tail-end wickets to complete a five-for would have been well-deserved, but competition among an eager bowling attack meant Hazlewood had to be content with three.Use of the spinners: Nathan Lyon and OKeefe had both trained with near-new balls in the lead-up to the Test, and Smith elected to hand the ball to the latter as early as the ninth over. Immediately, he found the sort of beguiling variation that has helped him build, by a distance, the most handsome Sheffield Shield record of any contemporary Australian spinner.Some balls skidded on, while others gripped. OKeefes slight build and somewhat round-arm action gives him a similar trajectory to Rangana Herath, and he used this well to defeat a tentative Mathews with a hint of extra turn and bounce. Lyon was held back until the last over before lunch, but he too would use the conditions nicely. Three wickets in seven balls spanning the first and third overs after the interval effectively ended Sri Lankas innings, with bounce, turn and natural variation all coming into play. Lyon made his debut in this country five years ago; it is fitting he now sits two wickets away from 200 on visit No. 2.Out-of-kilter openers: For a brief moment, Australias march towards control of the Test was held up by the rapid exits of Warner and Burns, in circumstances that both batsmen will not be best pleased about. Bowled by full deliveries, neither paid due care and attention, and the opportunity to bat under relatively little scoreboard pressure was wasted.Warner, of course, is very much short of match practice. Having suffered a broken finger to the same hand that already nurses a problematic, previously injured thumb, he delayed his return to the batting crease as long as possible, eschewing the earlier tour match. He is also reluctant to bat in the fast bowlers No. 1 net these days, and it is just possible that Nuwan Pradeep hurried onto him with a near yorker touching 141kph. Warners feet were slow to move, and the drag onto the stumps maintained a drought of overseas centuries, dating back to March, 2014.Burns has made no secret that these conditions will stretch him, but he remonstrated visibly with himself after miscalculating Heraths skid with the new ball. Stretching forward to defend, he played for fractional turn, duly leaving a gap through which the ball hurried through. That dismissal mirrored many suffered by the Australians in the UAE against Pakistan, when Yasir Shah and Zulfiqur Babar created similar doubts, to which the only remedy is supremely close attention to the ball through the air and off the pitch. Khawaja and Smith both had similar moments of inexact judgement, but escaped to bat on tomorrow. Many more runs beckon. 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ESTERO, Fla. -- The foreshadowing came on the opening tip-off, when Baylors Beatrice Mompremier barely had to move to win possession against Kent States Naddiyah Cross.Then again, Mompremier is nearly a foot taller than Cross.So a lopsided height advantage decided the games first play, and plenty of plays after that as well. Kalani Brown scored 17 points, Lauren Cox added 15 and No. 5 Baylor rolled past Kent State 84-42 on Friday in the opening game of the Gulf Coast Showcase.Brown, Cox and Mompremier -- all between 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-7, bigger than anyone who dared defend them -- combined to make 19 of their 25 shots, and Baylor (5-1) enjoyed a 49-23 rebounding edge.Really, you could just flip a coin, said Brown, who shot 8 for 9 and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds in just 16 minutes. All of us did great things today and used it to our advantage, I guess.Baylor took control with a 15-0 run in the first quarter, and shot 52 percent.I have the luxury of having five outstanding post players, Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. I have the three really big ones and two that are somewhat undersized, but we go to the boards hard.Larissa Lurken scored 15 for Kent State (2-3), which has dropped three straight. The Golden Flashes shot 29 percent for the game, 10 percent in the final quarter.We were just proud of the opportunity to play against a team like Baylor and compete at the highest level, Kent State coach Todd Starkey said. I thought our kids did a good job of executing. We had a couple things happen today that some of our players are going to remember for the rest of their lives.Among those things: Lurken scored her 1,000th ccareer point, and senior Lacey Miller got the first basket of her college career.ddddddddddddhose are the types of things those kids will be telling their families 20, 30 years down the road, Starkey said.BIG PICTUREKent State: Lurkens became the 20th Kent State player to reach the 1,000-point mark. ... It was the first time the Golden Flashes met Baylor since beating the Bears in 1997.Baylor: No Baylor player logged more than 23 minutes, which could help the Bears cause as the three-games-in-three-days tournament goes along. ... The Bears improved to 17-0 in 2016 against unranked opponents, 4-0 this season. ... Mompremier is playing this weekend about two hours from her Miami home, and reserve Alyssa Fry spent her senior high school season about 90 minutes north of the tournament site at IMG Academy in Bradenton.PROGRESS?Kent State had not led in either of its last two games, against Robert Morris and Detroit Mercy. The Golden Flashes actually had the lead against Baylor, holding it for 2 minutes, 27 seconds in the first quarter -- 5-2 being the largest.EARLY WAKE-UPIt was an 11 a.m. start time, and Baylors Alexis Jones got a wake-up call around 11:01 or so when she was benched 51 seconds into the contest. She had two turnovers in that span, including one 2 seconds into the game. But after sitting for nearly 5 minutes, Jones returned and scored 10 quick points.UP NEXTKent State: Faces Western Kentucky in consolation semifinals Friday.Baylor: Faces No. 18 DePaul in tournament semifinals Friday. ' ' '