An excellent venue for spin

After demolishing Sri Lanka by an innings and 40 runs in the first Test - and in the process winning their 13th Test in a row - Australia will look to continue their dominant ways in the second Test in Hobart, a venue where they have won five out of seven Tests, and haven't lost so far.

Australia have been successful at most home venues in the last few years, but the numbers look especially good for them in Hobart - when batting, they average 46.5 runs per wicket; with the ball, they concede 25.5 runs per wicket. That's a difference of 21 runs per wicket, which translates into 210 runs over a completed innings.

As you'd expect, most of the Australian batsmen have excellent numbers here: the three left-handers, Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist and Michael Hussey lead the way - Hussey 137 and 31 not out in his only Test here, while Hayden and Gilchrist both average more than 65. It's been a mixed bag for Ricky Ponting in home state, though - he averages almost 45, but that's due to an unbeaten 157 against New Zealand in 2001-02. Exclude that innings, and his other scores read 4, 0, 0, 17.

What should be more heartening for Sri Lanka is the performance of spinners at the Bellerive Oval. They have easily outdone the fast bowlers, averaging almost 14 runs less per wicket. And of the ten five-wicket hauls here, spin has accounted for seven - three by Shane Warne, and one each by Tim May, Daniel Vettori, Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq. Stuart MacGill, the spinner who is most likely to play for Australia, had a good time here in his only Test, taking a match haul of 5 for 87 against West Indies in 2005-06. Among the fast bowlers, on the other hand, only Glenn McGrath, Merv Hughes, and Rumesh Ratnayake have managed five-fors.

The table below shows the average partnerships for each wicket for Australia and the opposition teams in Hobart. As in Brisbane, the difference in the top-order numbers is huge: Australia have had six century stands for the first two wickets; other teams have had just one. The third and fifth wickets have been strangely barren, but then the lower order has weighed in significantly for them. Australia's average sixth-wicket stand here is a massive 78.22, which is their best among all wickets here.

Marvan Atapattu has mostly been in the news for the wrong reasons, but he and Sanath Jayasuriya will need to do better than other openers have done here, while a fit a healthy Kumar Sangakkara could have a vital role at No.3.