Pakistan pull off a dramatic victory against Sri Lanka in the 1st Test- Sri Lanka v Pakistan Match Review

Pakistan pull off a dramatic victory against Sri Lanka in the 1st Test- Sri Lanka v Pakistan Match Review: The first of the three match test series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan at Galle ended in a whirl in favour of Pakistan as the visitors marched onto a crunching victory with some extraordinary efforts with the ball on the final day. After inflicting a brilliant total in the first innings, Pakistan’s lower middle order fought back superbly, followed by a sensational bowling effort in the rain intervened game and tilted the fate of the game in favour of the visiting team on the final day and Pakistan ensured a whooping 10-wicket victory against the hosts.

After the first day of the test got washed out even without the toss, things portrayed towards a draw. After being put into bat first, Sri Lanka were progressing steady headed towards a good total with some brilliant batting display by their top order. In fact, with the aid of a fantastic century from Kaushal Silva, the Pakistani bowling attack did not find much of a fruitful prospects in the initial stages. Sangakkara carried on with his dreamy form in the first innings when he struck a sensational half century and combined for the century stand with Silva. But since Sangakkara walked back, the Lankan’s seemed to be in a trance of back foot.

In the third day of the test, Sri Lanka’s batting collapsed at a whirl, courtesy of a jovial display of bowling from the Pakistani bowlers. Zulfiqar Babar and Wahab Riaz paired up to bring despair for the home team and as a result Sri Lanka was bundled at the score of 300 runs in the first innings.

In reply, the Pakistani innings looked to be a state of turmoil to start with. Opening batsman, Mohammad Hafeez was dismissed right in the first over of the innings by Dhammika Prasad. In fact the top three, including Hafeez, Shehzad and Azhar Ali were dismissed while in single figures. The breakdown was somehow restrained by Pak’s dependable pillar’s, Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq. Younis scored a reviving 47 and took Pakistan to stability.

But things again went dicey after Younis’s dismissal and the team was hanging from the cliff at 86 for 4. Misbah fell in shortly after that and Pakistan looked to be struggling too much at the score of 96 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. Then came in a sensational counter attack alike partnership from Sarfraz Ahmed and Asad Shafiq.

On the fourth day, both of the batsmen contributed to a centurion partnership. Shafiq played a defensive role in the partnership while on the other hand, Sarfraz took up the ante with intensified aggression. On a sad note for Pak fans, while trying to sweep a ball, Sarfraz misjudged the delivery from Prasad and the ball ultimately struck the leg stumps and he was forced to make the long walk back with 96 runs off 86 deliveries, 4 short from a blistering century.

The tail enders seem to collapse after that and things were reduced to 302 for the loss of 8 wickets. And following that a sensational partnership was conceived among Zulfiqar Babar and Asad Shafiq. Babar became one of the oldest tail enders to strike a half century at the age of 36 years. And Shafiq struck a majestic century. The partnership contributed 101 runs to the team total and finally Pakistan were done in for 417 runs.

In the second innings, Sri Lanka looked to play off the overs on the penultimate day. While, on the other end, Pakistan could find a thin prospect for victory.

The bowlers put up a brave effort and kept on striking one Sri Lanka batsman after the other. Starting from 63 for 2 at day five, the Sri Lankan batsmen did not find much comfort against the Pakistan attack. Yasir Shah, the ecstatic leg spinner optimally utilized the turning day five track at Galle. He extracted help form the cracked patches of the pitch and bowled at a decent length.

In fact, the leggie went on to take 7 wickets conceding just 76 runs. This happens to be one of the best performances by a Pak leg spinner against Sri Lanka in test matches. At the other end, Riaz assisted him well and scalped a couple. Finally, Sri Lanka was dismantled at the score of 206 runs and Pakistan was asked to make 90 runs with 42 overs left in the day to claim victory. The opening batsmen in the likes of Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammed Hafeez started off with a flash and chased down the target in 11.2 overs.

And thus, Pakistan sealed an emphatic 10-wicket victory and now leads the test series, 1-0. Sarfraz Ahmed was adjourned as the Man of the Match.

Brief Score:

Sri Lanka, 1^st Innings, 300/10 (Kaushal Silva 125, Zulfiqar Babar 3/64)

Pakistan, 1^st Innings, 417/10 (Asad Shafiq 131, Sarfraz Ahmed 96, Dilruwan Perera 4/122)

Sri Lanka, 2^nd innings, 206/10 (Dimuth Karunaratne 79, Yasir Shah 7/76)

Pakistan, 2^nd innings, 92/0 (Mohammad Hafeez 46*) won by 10 wickets.