Sri Lanka vs Pakistan Day 1 of the first test match ended interestingly with an anticipation to present a thrilling day 2. At the end of the first day of play on Saturday’s first Test of the two-match series at the Galle International Stadium, Pakistan had a score of 24 for two. Pakistan lost two wickets before the end of the day’s play after knocking Sri Lanka out for 222.
Shaheen Afridi earlier claimed four wickets as Pakistan bowled Sri Lanka out for 222 in the first innings.
Shaheen first dismissed Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne in the third over of the innings.Then Yasir Shah and Hasan Ali also got among the wickets and Sri Lanka lost four till lunch break with the score being 80/4.Pakistan dominated the second session as well and picked another four wickets to see Sri Lanka struggling to even get past 200.
Sri Lanka Vs Pakistan – Interesting Day 2 in waiting
Earlier, Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss and opted to bat against Pakistan in the first Test of the two-match series at the Galle International Stadium.Despite a lot of chaos off the field, Sri Lanka face visitors Pakistan. It is interesting to note that both the sides played their recent Test match against Australia. While the hosts had won it by an innings and 39 runs, Pakistan had lost to Australia by 115 runs.
Scorecard: Pakistan 24 for 2 (Azhar 3, Babar 1, Jayasuriya 1-2) trail Sri Lanka 222 (Chandimal 76, Theekshana 38, Oshada 35, Afridi 4-58, Hasan 2-23, Yasir 2-66) by 198 runs
If Pakistan are going to play the waiting game like this, Sri Lanka may get more chances with the ball turning and jumping big on batters occasionally. Pakistan sure will not be too unhappy with proceedings today, but you wonder if those 89 runs for the last 2 wickets could come back to haunt them.
Their bowlers made a dream start reducing Sri Lanka to 133/8 but Chandimal played a brilliant counterattacking innings alongside Theekshana and the latter hit some crucial boundaries himself later to push Sri Lanka past 200. Kasun Rajitha was so good after the first couple of overs and eventually got Imam. Jayasuriya set up Shafique brilliantly to trap him with an arm-ball. He almost had Babar first ball too.
With evidence from the pitch, it’s really difficult to say Pakistan have their noses ahead at this point. Match still very much in the balance with Sri Lanka’s fightback. Lots to look forward to tomorrow. We will see you all at 10:00 local time.
Talking about their current rankings, Pakistan occupy the sixth spot while Sri Lanka are just a spot below them in the table.
