Pakistani opener Abdullah Shafique and skipper Babar Azam put on 101 for the 3rd wicket to inch Pakistan ever so close to chasing down 342 in the 1st Test against Sri Lanka. Despite losing Azam late in the day, at stumps on Day 4, the visitors are sitting pretty on 222/3.
Shafique looked solid in the middle right throughout his innings, bringing up his century in 238 deliveries. He was particularly good at judging length during his knock, using the sweep as well as coming down the track to good effect. His incredibly run in Tests continues as he remained unbeaten on 112 at stumps and is Pakistan’s big hope if they are to chase this down.
He was given a life after he reached his half-century, when Niroshan Dickwella dropped a half chance down the leg side off Dhananjaya de Silva . Shafique went for a sweep and the ball took the handle of the bat before bobbing up. Though he got his gloves to it, the Sri Lankan keeper was unable to hold on.
Babar Azam had 3 centuries in Tests vs Sri Lanka prior to this innings and he looked primed to add to that tally, looking comfortable in what was increasingly looking like a decent track to bat on, despite the expectation that things would get hard for batters on Day 4 and 5.
The assistance for the spinners finally came with about an hour left in the day’s play as Prabath Jayasuriya and Maheesh Theekshana suddenly got the ball talking. Theekshana in particular had a few close calls, beating the bat on a number of occasions to no avail.
Jayasuriya’s patience finally paid off when he bowled Azam around his legs. Through the 79th over, the left arm spinner had targeted the leg-stump line, with the Pakistan skipper content to pad the ball away. He didn’t get his foot across far enough towards the ball on the third occasion he tried to pad up and ended up being bowled.
Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka’s overnight batters Dinesh Chandimal and Prabath Jayasuriya lasted just 5 overs in the day, with Jayasuriya having his stumps knocked back by Naseem Shah, with the score on 337. Chandimal had farmed the strike as well as possible, but Shah was just too good for Sri Lanka’s No. 11, getting one through his defenses and leaving Chandimal stranded on 94*.
Sri Lanka’s veteran batter has been in incredible form this year and if he had got to the 3-figure mark, it would have been his 3rd 100+ score in 4 Tests (206* in 2nd Test v Australia and 124 in 2nd Test v Bangladesh).
The Pakistani openers survived some close calls early in the day, with Shafique surviving a very close LBW call in the 4th over with the score on 7 off the bowling of Prabath Jayasuriya – Sri Lanka reviewed, but Shafique was saved on Umpires Call.
In the very next over, Kasun Rajitha trapped Imam Ul Haq LBW for the 2nd time in the game, but this time the batter was saved by DRS as the ball was shown to be missing the stumps.
The drama continued in Rajitha’s next over as he got Imam to sky a drive on the off – unfortunately for the hosts, Dinesh Chandimal was unable to hold on to a tough one, running back at cover.
He was finally dismissed thanks to some cheeky keeping by Niroshan Dickwella, who bided his time until Imam lifted his foot to remove the bail. The 3rd umpire Rod Tucker took plenty of time, before ruling the batter out – the square leg angle seemingly showing Imam’s foot in the air.
Azhar Ali looked rusty and eventually fell for 6 off 32 before Shafique was joined by Azam.
Pakistan require a further 120 runs to chase down 342. If they do manage to do it on Day 5, this would be the highest successful run-chase at the Galle International Cricket Stadium.
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