Sri Lanka 355 and 22 for 1 (Karunaratne 8*, Silva 6*) trail Australia 379 (S Marsh 130, Smith 119, M Marsh 53, Herath 6-81) by 2 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball detailsThis was a handy day of Test cricket all round. Rangana Heraths magic hands conjured six wickets. Mitchell Marshs hard hands cost him the chance for more than a fifty. Kusal Pereras lightning hands effected two brilliant stumpings. Shaun Marsh and Steven Smith played invaluable hands, scoring Australias only two centuries of the series. And by the close of play on the third day in Colombo, it was impossible to say which team had the upper hand.That, after a couple of walkovers in Pallekele and Galle, was a blessing. True, the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy will be presented to Angelo Mathews no matter what happens in this Test, but Smith and Marsh at least reduced the chances of a whitewash and made a contest of this match. And it is accurate to lay the credit entirely with those two men, for after their 246-run partnership ended, Australias last nine wickets tumbled for 112.For the period of their union, it was as if Australia were playing a different series. The 2011 series, perhaps, when Marsh scored a century on debut and Australia lifted the trophy.The ball still turned, but Marsh and Smith handled it with aplomb, using their feet, finding the gaps, showing patience and respect. It was enough, along with the second fifty of Mitchell Marshs career, to give Australia a first-innings lead of 24.By stumps, Sri Lanka had reduced that deficit to two runs, moving to 22 for 1. A change of openers did not improve their top-order record in this series. Dilruwan Perera, bumped up to open alongside Dimuth Karunaratne, was lbw when he offered no shot to a fast inswinger from Mitchell Starc. The score was 8 for 1, which remarkably was Sri Lankas biggest opening partnership of the series. At close, Karunaratne was on 8 and Kaushal Silva had 6.But this day was about the Smith-Marsh partnership, which became the fourth-highest stand for any Australian pair for any wicket in a Test in Asia. The most recent such occasion had also featured Marsh: on debut against Sri Lanka in Pallekele in 2011 he had put on 258 with Michael Hussey for the fourth wicket.Since then, Marsh has been the source of great frustration for Australia, his obvious talent and his ability to score Test centuries offset by frequent troughs in his scoring. That this is his 18th Test and yet his seventh stint in the side shows that the selectors appreciate his potential but have often been vexed by his inconsistency.But at 33, Marsh might just be pushing his case for a lengthy stay in the side. His hundred in Colombo was his second from consecutive Test innings, though they have come eight months apart - almost a pregnant pause, and indeed he did become a father during the downtime. In December Marsh was dropped after making 182 against West Indies in Hobart, where he had been an injury replacement for Usman Khawaja.His approach to this innings could hardly have been a finer audition for a place in Australias line-up for next years Test tour of India - one country in which Marsh has never played a Test match. For the most part, he picked the turn and played with soft hands, working the ball through gaps, alternating between playing forward and back. His hundred - the fourth of his Test career - came up with a boundary swept fine off Dilruwan Perera off his 214th delivery.Smiths century, the 15th of his career and his first in Asia, came up soon afterwards from his 176th ball when he advanced and clipped Perera through midwicket. Like Marsh, Smith used his feet and played along the ground, and was strong through both cover and midwicket. Smith has now scored a century against every Test nation that he has played with the sole exception of Pakistan, and a home series against them this summer gives him every chance of rectifying that.But once the partnership was broken, wickets started to fall more freely. Herath, who struggled in the morning session and left the field still suffering from discomfort after being struck in the groin while batting on the second day, found his mojo in the second session. But the highlight of the session was Kusal Pereras brilliant work with the gloves. Twice within five overs, he stumped Australian batsmen off Herath, his hands so slick they looked fast even on slow-motion replays.Smith was the first of the two victims, drawn forward by Herath and found by the third umpire to have dragged his foot fractionally outside the crease when the bails were whipped off. The second such dismissal was that of Moises Henriques, included for the fourth Test of his career and his first in more than three years. He never looked comfortable, and fell in similar fashion for 4, the victim of Pereras lightning glovework.It meant that three wickets had fallen within the first 10 overs of the new ball, Suranga Lakmal having already accounted for Shaun Marsh, who chopped on for 130 from 281 deliveries. That ended the long partnership with Smith, who finished on 119 from 218 balls a few overs later. No other Australian partnership reached fifty.Adam Voges was lbw to Herath for 22, beaten by a ball that turned exquisitely past the outside edge and would have hit off stump. Peter Nevill (14) was similarly beaten and trapped lbw by Dilruwan Perera, though this time he played for spin that never arrived. Nathan Lyon was caught in close off Perera, Josh Hazlewood bowled by Herath and Jon Holland taken at slip to leave Herath with 6 for 81, and 21 wickets so far in the series.Only Mitchell Marsh had offered any real resistance after his brothers wicket. Marsh has contributed cameos on a regular basis in his Test career but not since his second Test, played against Pakistan in the UAE back in 2014, had he made a half-century. Here he did so in impressive style, punishing loose balls when given the chance and respecting the good ones.On 53, though, he prodded with hard hands at Herath and was snapped up sharply by Kusal Mendis at bat-pad. Marshs face told the story: he couldnt believe what he had done. But at least he had done his bit for Australia, and for making this match a contest. With two days to play, only two runs and one wicket separated the teams. A fascinating final two days were in prospect. Cheap Air Jordans From China . 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But Bourque, who has missed three games with a lower-body injury, wont be in the lineup when the Habs travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Wednesday. Since its inception in 1965, the Major League Baseball draft has evolved from a quaint midsummer diversion to an exercise in efficiency. Area scouts descend upon every college, high school and cornfield in America in search of superstars and sleepers. Analytics departments track numbers to the decimal point. Prospects land on the radar before they can shave, and theyre paraded before scouts in showcases and summer leagues, where tools are graded and each wart and insecurity is exposed. The level of scrutiny makes it next to impossible for players to slip through the cracks.Yet T.J. Friedl slipped through the cracks. And then he crash-landed on 30 scouting directors heads after theyd strategized, mapped out their boards and spent most of the money available to them under MLBs meticulous slotting system. By the time his saga was complete, he had etched a strange new chapter in draft history.While the Cincinnati Reds were hosting St. Louis at Great American Ball Park on Thursday, Friedl, a left-handed-hitting outfielder from the University of Nevada, was in the city undergoing a physical exam. Everything checked out fine, and he reached agreement with the Reds on a $732,500 bonus, the largest ever for a player who was bypassed in the draft.Scouts, true to form, are trying to project what kind of player hell be. Friedl, a 5-10, 170-pound center fielder with 70-grade speed on the 20-80 scouts scale, reminds some evaluators of former Seattle Mariners outfielder Jeremy Reed. Others compare him to Brett Gardner, a 2015 All-Star who has 215 stolen bases in nine seasons with the New York Yankees.Friedl, in contrast, sees a kindred spirit in Lenny Dykstra -- the scrappy, pre-steroidal Dykstra who compensated for his lack of size with his hustle and heart.I wanted to model my game after his, Friedl said. When Lenny Dykstra was on the field, his size didnt matter, because he was tough as nails. And his uniform was always dirty. After watching him play, I told myself, if I came home and my uniform wasnt dirty, I didnt play the game the right way.If his professional fairy tale continues, Friedl will be tormenting opponents and testing the stain-removing acumen of clubhouse attendants for years to come. Flash back to the late spring, and he was a garden-variety overachiever eagerly awaiting his junior year at Nevada. Through a combination of confusion and fate, Friedl is now a member of the Pioneer Leagues Billings Mustangs.Invisible manIn the 50-year history of the draft, a select few players have been passed over in June and gone on to make a mark in the big leagues. In June 1998, University of Mississippi outfielder Bobby Kielty went undrafted because of a back injury, only to appear on the scouts radar when he hit .384 in the Cape Cod League. The Minnesota Twins signed Kielty to a $500,000 bonus in February 1999, and he went on to play seven seasons in the majors.In the 1999 draft, Florida State junior Kevin Cash was passed over because scouts were convinced he couldnt play third base professionally. Everything changed when Cash went to the Cape Cod League, both catchers on his team suffered injuries and the coach asked for volunteers. Cash raised his hand, and he instantly looked like a natural behind the plate. Toronto scouts Tim Wilken and Chris Buckley signed him for a $60,000 bonus, and Cash spent eight years in the big leagues as a backup catcher with the Blue Jays, Red Sox and three other clubs.Friedl is different. This wasnt just a case of baseball misjudging his talent. He was hiding in plain sight, and the executives, scouts, statistical analysts and agents/advisers who operate baseballs draft machine either didnt know who he was or didnt realize how good he was.Ive been working the draft for 14 years, and this is the craziest thing Ive ever seen, said Adam Karon, Friedls agent. Its so bizarre. Almost nobody knew this kid was eligible for the draft -- including himself.In a sense, it was fitting that Friedl would be the one to buck tradition. He has been sneaking up on people for most of his life.Friedl grew up with three older sisters in Pleasanton, California, the San Francisco suburb that produced Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford. He was a quick, assist-minded point guard on the Foothill High School basketball team, a three-year letterman and a .308 hitter for the baseball team. But his lack of size and strength limited his options, and his choices came down to junior college or trying to make the team at Nevada as a walk-on. He chose Option B.Friedl hit .216 in 37 at-bats as a freshman at Reno. He was buried on the depth chart and resigned to being a spare part again as a sophomore. When coach Jay Johnson laid out the options, Friedl decided to preserve a year of eligibility and sit out the season as a redshirt.I took that pretty hard, Friedl said. Ive always played with a chip on my shoulder, and that was my MO after that. My whole thing was, Just prove yourself. Nothing in my life has been given to me, and Ive had to earn everything Ive gotten. I stepped back after the redshirt and said, Every game, Im going to grind and play with a chip on my shoulder and work 100 percent.When Friedl returned for his third year in Reno, Johnson had departed for Arizona and been replaced by a new coach, T.J. Bruce. The Nevada staff saw enough potential to give Friedl a scholarship, and he responded with a breakout season. Friedl ranked 11th in the nation with a .401 batting average, while finishing second in triples (nine), 17th in on-base percentage (.494) and 24th in hits (89).People say to me, What did you guys do to him? Bruce said, laughing. I tell them, We stayed out of his way. Thats part of the deal sometime, isnt it?Confusion all aroundUnder MLB rules, college players need to be 21 years old or have exhausted three years of academic eligibility (not three years of actual playing time) to qualify for the draft. It never occurred to Friedl that he met the second requirement until a week before the draft, when he received a call from a scout with an undisclosed team.He basically told me, What would you say to being drafted? Friedl recalled. I told him, Thanks for the offer, but Im not draft-eligible this year. And he told me, Well, you are. But since the draft was so close and interest seemed minimal, Friedl politely demurred and said he planned to return to Nevada for the 2017 season.Friedl monitored the draft on the MLB Network, but oonly to keep tabs on his teammates.dddddddddddd. He was overjoyed when Nevada second baseman Miles Mastrobuoni went to Tampa Bay in the 14th round, and doubly thrilled when Cleveland selected Wolf Pack outfielder Trenton Brooks in Round 17.Unbeknownst to Friedl, his time would come. In late June, he attended the Team USA trials in Los Angeles and played well enough to earn a spot on the squad that would travel to Taiwan, Japan and Cuba. In his month with Team USA, Friedl hit .290 with a .536 slugging percentage and wowed the staff with his effort.He has been unbelievable, Team USA manager George Horton told MLB.coms Jonathan Mayo in July. Not in our wildest dreams when we were putting this team together did we expect to get what we are getting out of him.After his performance for Team USA, the attention from teams built to the point that Friedl needed an adviser to run interference. He chose the Sosnick, Cobbe & Karon group, which had represented former Nevada stars Kevin Kouzmanoff, Darrell Rasner and Braden Shipley in previous drafts. But this would not be a typical negotiation. Because the draft had passed and most teams had already spent their full allotment, Karon essentially had to squeeze blood out of a turnip.Under MLBs draft system, each team is allotted a specific pool. Any money spent over the pool limit is subject to a 75 percent tax. And once teams exceed their allotment by more than 5 percent, they lose a first-round draft pick in the following years draft.I had one team tell me, Wed give this kid over a million bucks if we had it, Karon said. Thats when I said, This is a really interesting situation. If everybody is out of money, maybe he goes back to school. If he waited, maybe he could have gone in the first or second round next year. But I think that would have been a bit of a risk for him. Teams look for a track record in the draft, and T.J. didnt have that.While Karon declined to give specifics on the talks, several sources said the field of candidates came down to the Reds and Tampa Bay Rays, both of whom had sufficient wiggle room to make a serious run at Friedl.Although the planets aligned in the Reds favor, they were in a position to swoop because they had done their legwork. National cross checker Mark McKnight, West Coast supervisor Rex De La Nuez and assistant general manager Sam Grossman had seen Friedl at the trials in Southern California, and they had the scouting reports ready to convince scouting director Chris Buckley to take the plunge. Yes, thats the same Chris Buckley who signed Kevin Cash out of the Cape Cod League 17 years ago.We didnt outsmart anybody, Buckley said. There was some confusion in this case, and we were the benefactors. But we also had three guys who took the assignment seriously and did a professional job of covering Team USA. They didnt just say, This will be a good guy for us next year. They did the work and said, No, this year.A baseball mysteryInevitably, scouting directors and personnel throughout the game reflect upon Friedls story and ask themselves, How the heck did this happen? Amid the second-guessing and finger-pointing, teams are conducting CSI-caliber autopsies to determine how everybody whiffed.Were the scouts entrusted with covering Northern California negligent in failing to put Friedl on their radar?Being an area scout is so very difficult and this situation is their worst nightmare, said an American League personnel man. Im sure every scout in that area is trying to retrace their steps seeing Nevada and how they could miss him.Were the numbers crunchers at fault? How can anyone bat .401 as a redshirt sophomore and go undrafted?I think most analytics departments take a broader look at performance history, and his freshman and summer numbers werent very good before this year, said a National League evaluator. In addition, Nevada plays in an offensive league, so teams had reason to suspect that Friedls numbers were artificially inflated.Bruce, Nevadas coach, is understandably sensitive to the perception that he played coy with the biographical information and tried to hide Friedl and bring him back to Reno for another season. The Nevada baseball website appears to debunk that notion. It clearly states that Friedl played for the Wolf Pack as a freshman and redshirted as a sophomore before returning for the 2016 season.?If somebody says I was hiding him, I wouldnt have vouched for him to go to Team USA baseball, Bruce said. Im trying to exhaust every avenue on my end, because I dont want anybody to take blame for this. Ive texted my friends in the industry and said, I apologize if I did anything. I just think there was a lot of confusion on a lot of peoples parts -- especially with that redshirt.For Friedl, nothing can obscure a head-spinning odyssey that has left him, his family and his friends in a state of disbelief. During his adventure with Team USA, he spoke several times a week with his mother, who constantly asked him, Is it reality yet? Has it hit you?Late last week, Friedl passed through Nevada to pick up his gear, and he received an invitation from a friend to speak to a group of teenagers at a high school camp. During one point in the conversation, he was asked to share the biggest lesson he has learned.I told the kids, It doesnt matter if youre the highest-recruited kid out of high school or a walk-on, non-recruited kid, Friedl said. No matter what, never stop working.Thats the biggest lesson Ive learned from Coach Bruce: The game always knows. The moment you take the game for granted and think you have everything, thats when itll be taken from you. But as long as you keep your head down and keep working hard, the game will reward you.Friedl has found that rewards -- and pleasant surprises -- come in bunches. On Friday, he hopped a flight to Montana and arrived in Billings around noon. He went directly to Dehler Park with his luggage and found his name in the starting lineup for the Mustangs game against the Ogden Raptors.Several hours later, Friedl launched the second pitch he saw over the fence. And when his debut was complete, hed gone 3-for-3 with two home runs. After a lifetime of overachieving and striving to validate his worth, T.J. Friedl has to deal with a new reality: He wont have the luxury of sneaking up anymore. 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