Dhananjaya, Abid & Babar with tons to draw historic Test

Sri Lanka tour of Pakistan 2019 – 1st Test

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The first of the 2-match Test series between hosts Pakistan and Sri Lanka ended today in a tame draw at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. The historic Test which marked the return of Test cricket to Pakistan saw the home team displaying a dominant show with the bat scoring 252/2 on the final day in reply to Sri Lanka’s 308 which they took more than 4 interrupted days to reach.

With clear skies suggesting a full day’s play despite the loss of so many overs already, Sri Lanka resumed their first innings which began 4 days ago. They occupied just 5.1 overs today as they declared their innings soon after Dhananjaya de Silva reached his 6th Test century.

With a draw imminent, both teams were expected to get useful match practice before heading to Karachi for the series deciding TestSri Lanka got off to an ideal start as Shan Masood gave an easy catch to Dinesh Chandimal at extra-cover off a Kasun Rajitha full-toss. Despite both their opening speedsters, Kasun Rajitha and Vishwa Fernando, not having expected swing the Lankans managed to keep things tight until they got rid of the Pkaistani skipper Azhar Ali, an hour after the lunch break.

Sri Lanka’s skipper Dimuth Karunaratne then surprised everyone bowling his part-time spinners from both ends suggesting that Sri Lanka weren’t much determined to pick as many wickets as possible. This made batting look so easy for the two right-handers out in the middle, Abid Ali and Babar Azam, and the duo got into a mood which made them bat positively.

Even after the re-introduction of specialist bowlers putting breaks on the runs which were coming easily and fast seemed to be very difficult as the loose passage of play by Sri Lanka had broken Pakistan’s shackles. Debutant Abid Ali, who already has scored a century on his ODI debut went on to create history by becoming the first male cricketer to score tons on both ODI and Test debuts.

Babar Azam, who started much later than Abid Ali reached his third Test ton just 9 overs after Abid and made the day a memorable one for the crowd in the stands as they were privileged enough to witness their most loved cricketer scoring a Test ton on home soil for the first time.

Looking at Sri Lanka’s bowling, they went just clueless when Abid Ali and Babar Azam started attacking. Before that, they looked decent and were able to maintain pressure. Lahiru Kumara in the spell in which he dismissed Azhar Ali, bowled one of the fastest spells of his life touching the high 140s constantly. Dilruwan Perera took a bit of time to find his rhythm, otherwise was fine.

Both teams will get 20 points each in the ICC World Test Championship points table.

Brief Scores

Sri Lanka – 308/6d (97) Dhananjaya de Silva 102*, Dimuth Karunaratne 59, Oshada Fernando 40, Niroshan Dickwella 33, Angelo Mathews 31, Shaheen Afridi 2/58, Naseem Shah 2/92

Pakistan – 252/2 (70) Abid Ali 109*, Babar Azam 102*, Azhar Ali 36, Kasun Rajitha 1/5, Lahiru Kumara 1/46

Match Drawn