Pakistani batman Abid Ali celebrates after completing his fifty during the fifth day of the first cricket test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka
The sky finally cleared on the fifth and final day of the historic Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka giving either side and most importantly, the young home side to embrace the home turf. Sri Lanka continued with their batting scoring 308 for six (declared), where Dhananjaya de Silva scored a century before Pakistan got the opportunity to bat on home soil for the first time in 10 years. And Abid Ali became the first Pakistani cricketer to score a century since 2008. With a punch off Vishwa Fernando down covers, Abid reached the milestone while also achieving a massive feat.
Abid became the first male cricketer ever to score a century on his Test and ODI debut. Earlier this year in Dubai, against Australia, Abid had made his ODI debut and he scored 112 runs, although in vain as Pakistan lost by six runs.
With the triple-figure mark on Sunday, Abid also became the first Pakistan batsman to make a ton in Rawalpindi since 2000 (Younis Khan was the last batsman who had also scored on debut).
Meanwhile, Pakistan started off the wrong foot as they lost Shan Masood for a duck before captain Azhar Ali departed for 36 after stitching an 87-run stand. Babar Azam and Abid then added 150 runs together on the board to keep Pakistan within touching distance of Sri Lanka's first-innings total.
