Succeeded when captain Sarfraz instructed me to bowl fierce, says Wahab Riaz

Pakistan’s spearhead as far as fast bowling is concerned, Wahab Riaz, had to take extra responsibility in the absence of Mohammad Amir in the second innings of the second Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The seamer responded brilliantly when his captain asked him to bowl fiercely as he ended up with four vital wickets which restricted the visitors to a total of 96 only.

After conceding a lead mammoth lead of 220, it was essential for the home side to restrict the Lankans to a low score. Riaz first picked up the man in form Dimuth Karunaratne and then removed debutant Samarawickrama out of the equation.

He came back and picked the wicket of dangerous looking Dickwell and caught Sri Lankan captain Dinesh Chandimal plumb in front to end up with figures of 4/41.

Riaz hopeful for a Pakistan victory

Riaz owed his success to his captain Sarfraz Ahmed who gave the freedom of bowling quick and fierce. Following those instructions, Riaz stated, “so I tried and succeeded.”

“Yes! I need wickets so you have to do bombardment on the Lankans,” ordered the captain to Wahab Riaz according to his interview with Geo News.

Speaking about the longest over bowled in Test history where Riaz could not find his run up five times in a row, the 32-year old from Lahore laughed and claimed that people are making it a joke. “Actually, I was making sure I don’t ‘No-ball’ so I had to abort my run up each time,” Riaz commented.

Pakistan was in a spot of bother after given a target of 317 to the Sri Lankans. The men in green were reduced to 52-5 with the wicket of Babar Azam.

However, captain Sarfraz Ahmed and Asad Shafiq came up with a spirited performance to see through the day without losing further wickets and taking their score to 198. Riaz concluded by saying that he hoped that the two batsmen take their team home and level the series.