Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam hit his 7th and arguably best Test hundred to take his side within 4 runs of Sri Lanka’s first innings total of 222 on Day 2 of the 1st Test between the sides.
Azam took his time having lost partner after partner in the 1st half of the day as Pakistan’s ploy of playing just 5 frontline batters seemed to backfire on them. He finally found able support from the lower order, putting on 27 alongside Yasir Shah, 36 alongside Hassan Ali and an incredible 70 with Naseem Shah. Of those 133 invaluable runs, Azam contributed 91.
Naseem Shah played his part to perfection in his 10th wicket partnership with Azam, solid in defence when Azam did give him the strike during the latter part of the over. Pakistan’s last man took 39 deliveries to get off the mark and promptly raised his bat to the pavilion; he remained unbeaten on 5 as Pakistan’s innings was brought to a close on 218.
Earlier in the day, Prabath Jayasuriya became the first Sri Lankan to pick up 3 consecutive 5-wicket hauls to start off his Test career as he finished with 5/82 to follow his 6/59 and 6/118 on debut against Australia earlier in the week.
Jayasuriya nearly struck with the very first delivery of the day, when he got Azhar Ali to hit an uppish drive to short extra cover, only to have skipper Dimuth Karunaratne drop the regulation take. Jayasuriya had the last laugh however, as he trapped Ali in front two balls later to give Sri Lanka the much-needed breakthrough, separating Pakistan’s two most dangerous batters Ali and Babar Azam.
It was the 1st of 3 LBWs that went Jayasuriya’s way during the 1st session as he put Sri Lanka well on top at the Lunch break with Pakistan tottering on 104/7. He struck once more after the break to remove Yasir Shah, but from that point, Sri Lanka found it it harder and harder to clean up the tail, as Azam looked almost immoveable on one end.
Hassan Ali struck a couple of blows before being caught in the deep but Shah stuck with Azam in what could possibly turn out to be a match-winning partnership.
To make matters worse for Sri Lanka, they lost skipper Dimuth Karunaratne to a marginal LBW call late in the day before umpires called bad light with the lead on 40.
