Kaushal Silva’s conservative 80* propelled Sri Lanka to 178 for 3 in 64 overs at stumps on day two as the long home season finally started with the rain clouds opening the way for sun to break through at Galle on Thursday.
Kaushal Silva managed to carve an eye-pleasing 80* to anchor the innings while he and Kumar Sangakkara constructed a classical 112-run stand for the 2nd wicket. They were very nervous in running between the wickets but the pair achieved a significant milestone of scoring 1000 runs between them in 18 innings during this productive partnership.
Kaushal Silva left most of the balls outside the off-stump and was very keen to punish anything short off the seamers or the spinners. His elegant back foot cut shots had nothing wrong during his patient 197-ball knock. Skipper Angelo Mathews remained unbeaten on 10*.
Pakistan bowlers created around 4 chances but the fielders could not hold on to them which could have made the story very different. Leg-spinner Yasir Shah got the ball to turn on many occasions and troubled the Lankans very often.
Wahab Riaz made Dimuth Karunarathne poke at a delivery outside off-stump in the 2nd over of the day to produce an edge to first slip but he overstepped which gave a second chance to the left-hander and he started off positively with few elegant on drives and back foot drives. Wahab finally made up for his mistake earlier with a fierce 2nd spell which got the back of Dimuth caught behind by Sarfraz Ahmed for 21.
Wahab Riaz was incessantly targeting Sangakkara’s head with an array of short deliveries but the 37-year old left-hander survived until he became Riaz’s 2nd scalp driving on the up but finding only the edge carrying straight to Younis Khan’s hands at first slip.
Part-time off-spinner Mohammed Hafeez picked up his 50th Test wicket when he prompted Lahiru Thirimanne to come down and loft it straight to mid-on fielder Zulfiqar Babar for just 8. Incidentally, 34 out of those 50 wickets have been left-handers for the ‘Professor’.
Earlier in the day, Misbah Ul-Haq won the toss and surprisingly elected to bowl. Sri Lanka brought back Kithruwan Vithanage and Dilruwan Perera to the playing XI as the number 7 batsman and second spin bowling option respectively.
The first day’s play was completely washed out due to persistent rain and over 2 hours and 15 minutes were lost on second day due to damp conditions.
Sri Lanka – 178/3 in 64 overs: Dimuth Karunarathne 21, Kaushal Silva 80*, Kumar Sangakkara 50, Wahab Riaz 2/51.
