Australia 66 for 2 (Smith 28*, Khawaja 25*) trail Sri Lanka 117 (Lyon 3-12, Hazlewood 3-21) by 51 runs Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBefore this Test was 40 overs old, 12 wickets had fallen and just 124 runs had been scored. Three of the dismissals were bowled, four lbw. Forget about reducing the depth of bats, making them wider and longer seemed a better way to achieve balance between bat and ball on a day like this. But then Steven Smith and Usman Khawaja came along, played steady, and restored sanity. They reminded everyone that, actually, these were quite good batting conditions.Until then, the only such hint from the scorecard was the footnote that Angelo Mathews had won the toss and chosen to bat. Josh Hazlewood: 3 for 21 from ten overs. Nathan Lyon: 3 for 12 from three. Sri Lankas top scorer: debutant Dhananjaya de Silva with 24. Sri Lankas best partnership: 25. And after Sri Lanka were all out for 117, David Warner and Joe Burns both fell within the first four overs of Australias innings. Surely this was a bowlers paradise?Not quite. Yes, there was spin. Yes, there were hints of swing. So there should be. But the bounce was generally true and as Smith and Khawaja began to show later in the day - before rain washed out the entire final session - good batting could be rewarded. Of course, they were both still finding their way when play was abandoned, Smith on 28 from 46 deliveries and Khawaja on 25 from 54. But only one Sri Lankan - Dinesh Chandimal with 15 off 54 - had lasted that long.Certainly Australias bowlers deserve significant credit. Hazlewood especially found just enough movement early in the day to be constantly threatening. Mitchell Starc picked up the first wicket, Dimuth Karunaratne lbw for 5 to a ball that tailed in, but Starc was playing his first Test since November and took some time to find his consistency. Hazlewood was the man who pierced the Sri Lanka top order.Kusal Mendis was lbw to Hazlewood for 8, failing to get bat on a ball that swung in, and Kaushal Silva followed quickly for 4, edging through to Adam Voges at first slip. Sri Lankas 15 for 2 had become 18 for 3, and Mathews might have started to wish he had lost the toss after all. He was the next man to walk to the crease and, after offering some resistance, was also the next to walk off.Smith had called on the left-arm spinner Steve OKeefe in the ninth over of the match and some turn was immediately evident. Then, in his fourth over, OKeefe extracted both spin and bounce to collect the edge off Mathews, who was taken at slip for 15. The innings was not yet 15 overs old and already Sri Lankas debutant at No.6, de Silva, was on his way to the middle.But de Silva showed few nerves and from his fifth ball in Test cricket got off the mark with a classy six down the ground off OKeefe, using his feet to find the pitch of the ball and hitting through the line. It was the only glimmer in an otherwise gloomy morning for the hosts. They went to lunch at 84 for 5 after Hazlewood again found some late swing, just enough to clip the edge of Chandimals bat; he was caught behind for 15.Sri Lanka lasted only a further 38 deliveries after lunch, as Lyon finished off what Hazlewood had started. Lyon had bowled just a single over before lunch but took two wickets within the first four deliveries after the break. The second ball of the session turned and caught the inside edge of de Silvas bat, and he was taken at bat-pad for 24. Two balls later Dilruwan Perera was struck in front for a duck.In his next over, Lyon got rid of Kusal Perera, who offered no shot to a ball that went on with the arm and rattled his stumps. He had made 20 and was the last of the recognised batsmen. The only question remaining was whether Sri Lanka would reach triple figures; they did that, but not a whole lot more.Herath was lbw to Starc, the victim of an astute review from the Australians that found the ball had just clipped his foot before coming off the middle of the bat. Debutant Lakshan Sandakan struck four boundaries to provide some entertainment before Nuwan Pradeep was the last man out, taken at slip off OKeefe.Rare is the Test in which a first innings of 117 is adequate, though Mathews would have been buoyed by the start made by his bowlers. In the third over, Pradeep got one to swing back in to David Warner, who chopped on for a duck, and next over Joe Burns was bowled for 3 when Herath, who shared the new ball in an attack short on pace options, moved one on with the arm.Australia were 7 for 2, but finally a half-century was forthcoming - albeit a partnership - as Khawaja and Smith compiled 59 by tea. They had just settled in when the rain did the same. Jordan Greenway Jersey . -- There were so many positives from the Orlando Magics first victory of the season that it was hard for coach Jacque Vaughn to stop praising his players. Jared Spurgeon Wild Jersey . The (11-11-4) Jets are seventh in the Central Division with 26 points. Fifth place Dallas and sixth-seeded Nashville also have 26 points, but the Stars have three games in hand on Winnipeg while Nashville has two. http://www.authenticwildpro.com/Jared-spurgeon-wild-jersey/ .Y. -- Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo had little trouble picking up his first shutout of the season against a Buffalo Sabres team thats having trouble scoring goals. Joel Eriksson Ek Jersey . Jordan Lynch, the all-purpose Heisman Trophy finalist from Northern Illinois, failed to make it into that exclusive club. Zach Parise Jersey . The Lightning are 2-0 so far on a four-game road trip, giving the club five straight wins as the guest and improving Tampas away record this season to 11-8-2. There is no convoluted formula or secret access code into the College Football Playoff. It is, however, an exclusive club -- one that so far has been reserved for the big boys of college football, the conference champions from the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, Pac-12 and SEC.The only common denominator between the haves and have-nots chasing a spot in the playoff is the one question every team must answer for the selection committee: Who did you beat?Last year, Houston beat Florida State, Louisville and Vanderbilt. Memphis beat Ole Miss. Cincinnati beat Miami. The entire American Athletic Conference went 6-4 against the ACC and won a total of 10 games against Power 5 opponents. It finished with three 10-win teams in Houston, Navy and Temple.New Years Six bowl? Definitely. Top four? Not a chance.I talked to the committee and I talked to the chair, said American Conference commissioner Mike Aresco. We were able to talk to them at the College Football Playoff, and I said, I just think there might be this bias toward teams that have always been there, teams in the P5 with the big names, but these teams can play, and Houston couldve been a very worthy playoff team.It still might be.The American raised its profile in the eyes of the committee last year, but in order for the group to even consider a team from the Group of 5 -- comprised of The American, the MAC, the Mountain West, the Sun Belt and C-USA -- it would likely have to be undefeated, including at least one win over a ranked Power 5 opponent, and the entire league would have to have a few top 25 teams like the American did last year.Its not impossible.Its just not probable in this system.I think the landscape needs to be evened out and made fair, said former Oregon offensive coordinator and first-year UCF coach Scott Frost. I think from our perspective, an eight-team playoff would be a lot better. Then you can take the top Group of 5 team and throw them in with the seven best Power 5 teams.I think the number of conference games needs to be standard throughout the leagues, he said. Im coming from the Pac-12, where we had to win nine straight conference games, and whatever nonconference you had, and a playoff if you get there. Wed be playing Arizona State or USC in Week 10, watching the SEC play The Citadel or Georgia Southern. Those kinds of things arent equitable. If were going to get to a point where everythiing is fair, then they need to even out the scheduling with everybody and give everybody a fair shake.ddddddddddddTemple coach Matt Rhule hasnt forgotten what it feels like to be undefeated and left out. He was on the 1994 Penn State team that went undefeated and didnt win the national title.This system? Its sooo much better, he said.That team wouldve killed for this opportunity, he said. I think its a step in the right direction, but I look forward to the day we open it up to eight teams. Im hoping that some day that happens, because I think the teams in this league, if they put them in the playoff, people would be really surprised at what we would do. I think wed have some really great games.There will be several chances to prove it this season.Houston has gotten the bulk of the attention as the Group of 5s best playoff hope, but ESPNs Football Power Index gives Boise State the best chance of any Group of 5 team to win out, at 7.9 percent - the fourth-best chance of any team in the country behind Oklahoma, Florida State and Clemson. FPI projects Houston to win just 8.6 games, but the Cougars will face Oklahoma and Louisville.South Florida also has a monumental opportunity at home when it faces Florida State, but its unlikely the selection committee could ignore a season opener against Towson. Memphis once against faces Ole Miss, Tulsa travels to Ohio State, and SMU has TCU and Baylor. One of the more underrated difficult schedules is ECUs three-game stretch against NC State, South Carolina and Virginia Tech.Lining up against Power 5 opponents is one thing. Winning those games is another.If you become the conference champion in the American conference and you win those games, UConns Bob Diaco said, I dont know how youre not going to be a part of that group of four, I really dont.The highest-ranked champion from the Group of 5 is guaranteed a spot in a New Years Six bowl, which Houston earned last year, when they beat Florida State 38-24 in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. If the Cougars can beat the Sooners in Week 1, they should immediately be taken seriously in the CFP race.If they went undefeated and win those games, Aresco said, I dont know how you keep them out.Maybe you dont.Its going to take perfection, though, to find out. ' ' '