Sri Lanka’s last two wickets added 89 runs, to help the hosts to a somewhat respectable total of 222 in the 1st innings of the 1st Test against Pakistan.
Dinesh Chandimal seemed to just pick up from where he left off in the 2nd Test against Australia earlier this week, middling nearly every delivery he faced in his innings off 76. He once again took a particular liking to the quicks, crunching Naseem Shah for 3 back to back fours to bring up his half century.
The right-hander fought a lone battle until he came together with the lower order as he put together valuable partnerships of 27 and 44 for the 7th and 9th wickets alongside Ramesh Mendis and Maheesh Theekshana.
Theekshana himself was impressive in his knock of 38, the shot of the day perhaps his straight hit for 6 to Yasir Shah. He and Kasun Rajitha put together 45 for the last wicket, further frustrating the visitors and the right-hander would have been eyeing a maiden half-century but it wasn’t to be as he was caught behind off the bowling of Shaheen Afridi playing an uppercut.
Earlier in the day, Afridi got the early breakthrough after Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first, removing the hosts’ skipper for just 1, with one that jagged back in to crash into the stumps in the 3rd over.
However, Oshada Fernando and Kusal Mendis rebuilt brilliantly from that point, going at over 4 runs an over in their partnership of 49. Shah was brought into the attack in just the 11th over and struck pretty quickly, getting Mendis to nick behind for 21.
When Hasan Ali struck in the next over to remove the other set batter Fernando for 35, Sri Lanka had gone from 60/1 – 60/3 in the span of a couple of overs.
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Ali and Shah kept building the pressure on the new batters, Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal and the former succumbed for a 15-ball duck to put the hosts under further pressure.
In tandem, Ali and Shah bowled 11 overs for just 28 runs going into Lunch, while picking up 3 wickets, giving Pakistan a major boost going into the break.
Afridi struck twice after the break, removing Dhananjaya de Silva and Niroshan Dickwella; two more loose dismissals conceded by the hosts. With partners running out, Chandimal took the attack to the Pakistanis and ended with his 21st fifty in Tests.
Despite some criticism about playing 3 out and out quicks, they did the job for Pakistan, picking up 7 wickets – Afridi picking up a 4-wicket haul.
Sri Lanka lost a precious review in the 5th over, when Sri Lanka decided to contest a call for LBW off the bowling off Rajitha but he struck in his very next over, removing Imam Ul Haq with a very similar delivery.
Prabath Jayasuriya looked good once again with the ball and beat Abdullah Shafique on the inside edge and then on the outside edge off consecutive deliveries before trapping him in front in the same over.
With the two wickets, Sri Lanka have drawn themselves level with the visitors, but the two key batters for Pakistan, Azhar Ali and Babar Azam took them to the close of play with no further damage, trailing by 198.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oshada Fernando | c Mohammad Rizwan b Hasan Ali | 35 | 49 | 5 | 0 | 71.43 |
| Dimuth Karunaratne | b Shaheen Shah Afridi | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 14.29 |
| Kusal Mendis | c Mohammad Rizwan b Yasir Shah | 21 | 35 | 3 | 0 | 60.00 |
| Angelo Mathews | c Naseem Shah b Yasir Shah | 0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | c Yasir Shah b Hasan Ali | 76 | 115 | 10 | 1 | 66.09 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | b Shaheen Shah Afridi | 14 | 28 | 2 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Niroshan Dickwella | c Agha Salman b Shaheen Shah Afridi | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Ramesh Mendis | c Mohammad Rizwan b Naseem Shah | 11 | 41 | 1 | 0 | 26.83 |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | lbw b Mohammad Nawaz | 3 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 33.33 |
| Maheesh Theekshana | c Mohammad Rizwan b Shaheen Shah Afridi | 38 | 65 | 4 | 1 | 58.46 |
| Kasun Rajitha | not out | 12 | 32 | 1 | 0 | 37.50 |
| Extras | 7 (b 1 , lb 3 , nb 3, w 0, pen 0) |
| Total | 222/10 (66.1 Overs, RR: 3.36) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shaheen Shah Afridi | 14.1 | 3 | 58 | 4 | 4.11 | |
| Hasan Ali | 12 | 2 | 23 | 2 | 1.92 | |
| Naseem Shah | 13 | 0 | 53 | 1 | 4.08 | |
| Yasir Shah | 21 | 4 | 66 | 2 | 3.14 | |
| Mohammad Nawaz | 6 | 2 | 18 | 1 | 3.00 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abdullah Shafique | lbw b Prabath Jayasuriya | 13 | 47 | 2 | 0 | 27.66 |
| Imam-ul-Haq | lbw b Kasun Rajitha | 2 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 12.50 |
| Azhar Ali | lbw b Prabath Jayasuriya | 3 | 41 | 0 | 0 | 7.32 |
| Babar Azam | lbw b Maheesh Theekshana | 119 | 244 | 11 | 2 | 48.77 |
| Mohammad Rizwan | c Niroshan Dickwella b Ramesh Mendis | 19 | 35 | 3 | 0 | 54.29 |
| Agha Salman | lbw b Prabath Jayasuriya | 5 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 33.33 |
| Mohammad Nawaz | c Nuwanidu Fernando b Prabath Jayasuriya | 5 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 27.78 |
| Shaheen Shah Afridi | lbw b Prabath Jayasuriya | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Yasir Shah | c Dhananjaya de Silva b Maheesh Theekshana | 18 | 56 | 1 | 0 | 32.14 |
| Hasan Ali | c Dinesh Chandimal b Ramesh Mendis | 17 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 80.95 |
| Naseem Shah | not out | 5 | 52 | 1 | 0 | 9.62 |
| Extras | 12 (b 5 , lb 1 , nb 1, w 5, pen 0) |
| Total | 218/10 (90.5 Overs, RR: 2.4) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kasun Rajitha | 11 | 2 | 42 | 1 | 3.82 | |
| Maheesh Theekshana | 25.5 | 6 | 68 | 2 | 2.67 | |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | 39 | 10 | 82 | 5 | 2.10 | |
| Ramesh Mendis | 13 | 2 | 18 | 2 | 1.38 | |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1.00 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oshada Fernando | c Babar Azam b Yasir Shah | 64 | 125 | 6 | 1 | 51.20 |
| Dimuth Karunaratne | lbw b Mohammad Nawaz | 16 | 29 | 2 | 0 | 55.17 |
| Kasun Rajitha | lbw b Mohammad Nawaz | 7 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 58.33 |
| Kusal Mendis | b Yasir Shah | 76 | 126 | 9 | 0 | 60.32 |
| Angelo Mathews | c Babar Azam b Mohammad Nawaz | 9 | 25 | 1 | 0 | 36.00 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | not out | 94 | 139 | 5 | 2 | 67.63 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | b Yasir Shah | 20 | 20 | 2 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Niroshan Dickwella | b Mohammad Nawaz | 12 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 109.09 |
| Ramesh Mendis | b Mohammad Nawaz | 22 | 32 | 2 | 0 | 68.75 |
| Maheesh Theekshana | c Mohammad Rizwan b Mohammad Hasnain | 11 | 57 | 0 | 0 | 19.30 |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | b Naseem Shah | 4 | 25 | 1 | 0 | 16.00 |
| Extras | 2 (b 0 , lb 1 , nb 1, w 0, pen 0) |
| Total | 337/10 (100 Overs, RR: 3.37) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shaheen Shah Afridi | 7 | 2 | 21 | 0 | 3.00 | |
| Mohammad Nawaz | 28 | 2 | 88 | 5 | 3.14 | |
| Agha Salman | 16 | 1 | 53 | 0 | 3.31 | |
| Yasir Shah | 29 | 2 | 122 | 3 | 4.21 | |
| Hasan Ali | 12 | 3 | 19 | 1 | 1.58 | |
| Babar Azam | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 9.00 | |
| Naseem Shah | 7 | 0 | 24 | 1 | 3.43 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abdullah Shafique | not out | 160 | 408 | 7 | 1 | 39.22 |
| Imam-ul-Haq | st Niroshan Dickwella b Ramesh Mendis | 35 | 73 | 3 | 0 | 47.95 |
| Azhar Ali | c Dhananjaya de Silva b Prabath Jayasuriya | 6 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 18.75 |
| Babar Azam | b Prabath Jayasuriya | 55 | 104 | 4 | 1 | 52.88 |
| Mohammad Rizwan | lbw b Prabath Jayasuriya | 40 | 74 | 2 | 0 | 54.05 |
| Agha Salman | c Niroshan Dickwella b Prabath Jayasuriya | 12 | 35 | 1 | 0 | 34.29 |
| Hasan Ali | c Maheesh Theekshana b Dhananjaya de Silva | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 125.00 |
| Mohammad Nawaz | not out | 19 | 34 | 1 | 0 | 55.88 |
| Extras | 12 (b 5 , lb 7 , nb 0, w 0, pen 0) |
| Total | 344/6 (127.2 Overs, RR: 2.7) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kasun Rajitha | 9 | 2 | 18 | 0 | 2.00 | |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | 56.2 | 10 | 133 | 4 | 2.37 | |
| Ramesh Mendis | 33 | 0 | 102 | 1 | 3.09 | |
| Maheesh Theekshana | 14 | 2 | 44 | 0 | 3.14 | |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | 15 | 1 | 33 | 1 | 2.20 | |
