Pakistan wrapped up a clinical demolition job of Sri Lanka at the SSC, Colombo, beating them by a margin of an innings and 222 runs in the second Test, cleansweeping the series 2-0.
The match was essentially sealed within three days, given that one of the days only saw ten overs of play, as Pakistan’s Noman Ali led the way in the second innings to pick up the first seven wickets, before Naseem Shah picked up the final three.
Earlier, after bowling out Sri Lanka for 166 within two sessions on the opening day, Pakistan adopted Bazball and went hammer and tongs on their way to a massive total of 576-5 declared, which included fifties from Shan Masood, Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan, a hundred from Agha Salman, and an imperious double-hundred from Abdullah Shafique.
This left Sri Lanka with a massive first-innings deficit of 410. However, the Sri Lankan openers started fluently, putting on 69 in 18 overs at nearly 4 runs an over. However, after Madushka’s departure, the Lankans kept losing wickets at regular intervals, invariably to the guile of Noman Ali, who went wicketless in the first innings.
The only resistance came from the experienced No. 4, Angelo Mathews, who fought until the end for his 63*, as wickets continued to fall at the other end. Noman picked up the first seven wickets of the innings, including that of Ramesh Mendis, who was the only one to give Mathews some support at the other end, putting on 36 for the seventh wicket.
After the wicket of Mendis, the reverse-swing of Naseem Shah was far too much to handle for the tail as No. 9, 10 and 11 had their stumps knocked over – incidentally all for ducks.
An away win with the margin of 2-0 against Sri Lanka gives Pakistan a terrific headstart for the World Test Championship 2023-25, and puts them at the top of the table with 24 points, followed by arch-rivals India, who recently missed out on a 2-0 cleansweeep due to incessant rain in the Caribbean.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nishan Madushka | run out (Shan Masood) | 4 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 44.44 |
| Dimuth Karunaratne | b Naseem Shah | 17 | 37 | 3 | 0 | 45.95 |
| Kusal Mendis | c Mohammad Rizwan b Shaheen Shah Afridi | 6 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 66.67 |
| Angelo Mathews | c Sarfaraz Ahmed b Naseem Shah | 9 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 34.62 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | c Imam-ul-Haq b Naseem Shah | 34 | 60 | 4 | 0 | 56.67 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | c Saud Shakeel b Abrar Ahmed | 57 | 68 | 9 | 1 | 83.82 |
| Sadeera Samarawickrama | c Abdullah Shafique b Abrar Ahmed | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Ramesh Mendis | c Saud Shakeel b Abrar Ahmed | 27 | 44 | 3 | 0 | 61.36 |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | run out (Shan Masood) | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 14.29 |
| Asitha Fernando | b Abrar Ahmed | 8 | 24 | 2 | 0 | 33.33 |
| Dilshan Madushanka | not out | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 3 (b 2 , lb 0 , nb 1, w 0, pen 0) |
| Total | 166/10 (48.4 Overs, RR: 3.41) |
| Fall of Wickets | 1-9 (2.4) Nishan Madushka, 2-23 (6.1) Kusal Mendis, 3-35 (12.5) Angelo Mathews, 4-36 (14.1) Dimuth Karunaratne, 5-121 (33.5) Dinesh Chandimal, 6-122 (34.4) Sadeera Samarawickrama, 7-133 (36.3) Dhananjaya de Silva, 8-136 (38.6) Prabath Jayasuriya, 9-163 (46.2) Asitha Fernando , 10-166 (48.4) Ramesh Mendis, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shaheen Shah Afridi | 11 | 1 | 44 | 1 | 4.00 | |
| Naseem Shah | 14 | 3 | 41 | 3 | 2.93 | |
| Abrar Ahmed | 20.4 | 2 | 69 | 4 | 3.38 | |
| Nauman Ali | 3 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 3.33 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abdullah Shafique | c Dilshan Madushanka b Prabath Jayasuriya | 201 | 326 | 19 | 4 | 61.66 |
| Imam-ul-Haq | c Nishan Madushka b Asitha Fernando | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Shan Masood | c Kusal Mendis b Asitha Fernando | 51 | 47 | 4 | 1 | 108.51 |
| Babar Azam | lbw b Prabath Jayasuriya | 39 | 75 | 4 | 1 | 52.00 |
| Saud Shakeel | lbw b Asitha Fernando | 57 | 110 | 6 | 0 | 51.82 |
| Sarfaraz Ahmed | -select- b | 14 | 22 | 3 | 0 | 63.64 |
| Agha Salman | not out | 132 | 154 | 15 | 1 | 85.71 |
| Mohammad Rizwan | not out | 50 | 67 | 4 | 1 | 74.63 |
| Extras | 26 (b 4 , lb 16 , nb 3, w 3, pen 0) |
| Total | 576/5 (134 Overs, RR: 4.3) |
| Fall of Wickets | 1-13 (2.3) Imam-ul-Haq, 2-121 (21.5) Shan Masood, 3-210 (47.5) Babar Azam, 4-319 (80.3) Saud Shakeel, 5-468 (113.2) Abdullah Shafique, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asitha Fernando | 25 | 1 | 133 | 3 | 5.32 | |
| Dilshan Madushanka | 17 | 3 | 77 | 0 | 4.53 | |
| Ramesh Mendis | 36 | 2 | 139 | 0 | 3.86 | |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | 53 | 11 | 194 | 2 | 3.66 | |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | 3 | 1 | 13 | 0 | 4.33 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nishan Madushka | b Noman Ali | 33 | 72 | 4 | 1 | 45.83 |
| Dimuth Karunaratne | c Imam-ul-Haq b Noman Ali | 41 | 61 | 6 | 0 | 67.21 |
| Kusal Mendis | c Saud Shakeel b Noman Ali | 14 | 35 | 2 | 0 | 40.00 |
| Angelo Mathews | not out | 63 | 127 | 7 | 2 | 49.61 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | c Imam-ul-Haq b Noman Ali | 1 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 9.09 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | c Abrar Ahmed b Noman Ali | 10 | 38 | 2 | 0 | 26.32 |
| Sadeera Samarawickrama | c Shan Masood b Noman Ali | 5 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 45.45 |
| Ramesh Mendis | st Mohammad Rizwan b Noman Ali | 16 | 42 | 2 | 0 | 38.10 |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | b Naseem Shah | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Asitha Fernando | b | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Dilshan Madushanka | b | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 5 (b 0 , lb 4 , nb 0, w 1, pen 0) |
| Total | 188/10 (67.4 Overs, RR: 2.78) |
| Fall of Wickets | 1-69 (18.1) Nishan Madushka, 2-86 (26.2) Dimuth Karunaratne, 3-99 (30.2) Kusal Mendis, 4-109 (32.5) Dinesh Chandimal, 5-131 (46.2) Dhananjaya de Silva, 6-141 (50.1) Sadeera Samarawickrama, 7-177 (64.3) Ramesh Mendis, 8-184 (65.5) Prabath Jayasuriya, 9-188 (67.1) Asitha Fernando , 10-188 (67.4) Dilshan Madushanka, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shaheen Shah Afridi | 12 | 5 | 30 | 0 | 2.50 | |
| Naseem Shah | 17.4 | 5 | 44 | 3 | 2.53 | |
| Abrar Ahmed | 10 | 1 | 34 | 0 | 3.40 | |
| Noman Ali | 23 | 8 | 70 | 7 | 3.04 | |
| Agha Salman | 5 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1.20 | |
