Sri Lanka Match Pakistan in High-Scoring Test Match

Stumps Sri Lanka 402 for 4 (De Silva 167*, Kusal 117*, Kamindu 58, Abbas 2-64, Saqib 2-105) trail Pakistan 434 for 9 dec (Shakeel 93, Asitha 3-107, Madushanka 3-108) by 32 runs

If Pakistan thought they had gone into the third day of the Rawalpindi Test in a position of strength, Sri Lanka showed across three dispiriting sessions for the home side how dangerous it can be to underestimate the visitors’ lower middle order. Across a ruthless day of Test match batting, Sri Lanka lost just the one wicket, adding 288 runs to their overnight score.

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Dhananjaya de Silva batted the whole day, and finished unbeaten on 167, just six runs away from matching his career best. Kusal Perera [sic] was also well into three figures in his first Test as captain, and Sri Lanka were just 30 runs away from Pakistan’s first-innings total, with six wickets still in their reserve. Sri Lanka’s old and incumbent captains had also combined for an unbeaten 249-run partnership that handed Sri Lanka the initiative heading into day four.

In the first session, Sri Lanka wore Pakistan down with measured batting, and during the rest of the day, the fifth-wicket pair broke them as they began dominating. At the start of the day, de Silva and Kamindu Mendis were patient and judicious in their shot selection, building on a burgeoning partnership that had begun to inch Sri Lanka out of trouble on the second evening. They looked largely comfortable, though Mohammad Abbas retained the ability to produce unplayable deliveries. One of those did for Kamindu shortly after his half-century, but with none of the other bowlers posing a similar threat and de Silva in fine form, Pakistan never looked like making more substantial inroads before lunch.

The priorities of de Silva and Kusal shifted early in the second session. At first, they wanted to guard against a possible collapse, with Sri Lanka well behind Pakistan’s first-innings effort, but they soon realised there was little to fear from the bowling attack barring Abbas. De Silva had been regal throughout his innings, but once he skipped down the track and drilled Arafat Minhas for the boundary that brought up his century, Sri Lanka began to overpower the bowlers.

The six overs that followed produced 57 runs. First Kusal, then de Silva cut loose. Twenty-one-year-old Razaullah’s inexperience and inaccuracy was preyed on by both batters, with the young fast bowler getting into a war of words with the pair, who were more than equipped to answer effectively with the bat. Minhas couldn’t find much turn on this strip with his spin either, and did not bring out his variations, while Kusal was especially prolific skipping down the track and hitting through the line against him.

Even the new ball Pakistan had been holding out for did little to thwart the batters. Mohammad Abbas had a rare off spell, and the pair were too settled to be put off by any of the other bowlers on a rapidly flattening surface. Within a few overs, Pakistan had resorted to the spin of Minhas.

The tea break served as no kind of momentum breaker for Sri Lanka either, and if Pakistan had an opportunity to regroup, it did not translate to tangible effectiveness in the final session. Sri Lanka stuck to their new-found belligerence, pressing home the advantage with their high intent. Razaullah plugged away from one end, but could not find a way to plug the run-scoring, which was growing ever more audacious as stumps neared.

Kusal had got to his half-century with a six over the sightscreen. He brought up three figures with a ramp off Razaullah over the keeper’s head, a shot he would repeat in the young quick’s following over and get six for it. The milestones tumbled as the pair chugged along: their 200-partnership, de Silva’s 150, the team’s 400.

Pakistan’s salvation, at that point, lay only in the speed with which the light faded in Rawalpindi, allowing them to slink back into the safety of the dressing room, hunkering down before they prepared to fight on day four.

Yet, their outing in Rawalpindi could have been so much simpler. De Silva was on 38 early in the morning when Razaullah produced an outside edge from his bat, when the Sri Lanka batter played a rare loose drive with hard hands. The ball zipped to Saud Shakeel at the perfect catching height, only for the slip fielder to see, with horror, the ball pop out of his hands.

Pakistan, and Razaullah specifically, would spend the rest of the day copping punishment for that moment, and more awaits tomorrow.