Highlights
- Pakistan's Agha Salman scored a grittu 62 off 126 deliveries
- Pakistan are leading the 2 match Test series by 1-0
- This is Sri Lankan legend Angelo Mathew's 100th Test match
The Sri Lankan cricket team is slowly but steadily building a reputation of making strong comebacks in the longest format of the game. On Monday, Sri Lanka exactly replicated what they did against the mighty Aussies in the second Test match in Galle. Regaining full control of the Test match, the Sri Lankan bowlers bamboozled the Pakistan batsmen with their crafty display of spin bowling. The Sri Lankan bowlers were extremely patient with their game plan and they let the Pakistan batsmen crumble to their restlessness.
The Sri Lankan team led by Dimuth Karunatane was heavily criticized for their strategies and tactics as they failed to defend a mammoth total of 342 runs in the first test match of the series. But it seems as if things have turned around for the Sri Lankan attack, especially their spin bowling. The spinners kept on hitting good areas which tested the Pakistan batsmen who looked completely clueless at one point in time.
Wrecker-in-chief Ramesh Mendis put the entire Pakistan batting in disarray as he scalped 3 wickets and conceded just 42 runs at the end of the day's play. The only positive that Pakistan could take away from day 2 was Agha Salman's gritty knock of 62 runs which stabilized the Pakistani innings to some extent. Agha fell prey to Sri Lanka's recent find Prabath Jayasuriya who is grabbing headlines all around the cricketing fraternity for all the right reasons.
To Sri Lanka's relief, Asitha Fernando who returned after recovering from COVID-19 stamped his authority straightaway on the game as he dismissed Abdullah Shafique with the second ball of the innings. The Pakistan opener completely misjudged the line of the delivery as he nicked it straight to his stump. Pakistan slumped even further when their skipper Babar Azam was dismissed by Prabath Jayasuriya for a meager 16 runs.
Mendis then claimed three quick wickets. He had Mohammad Rizwan and Fawad Alam leg before wicket for identical scores of 24 before Mohammed Nawaz (12) was caught behind. Sri Lanka posted 378 in its first innings after resuming on the overnight score of 315-6.
(Inputs from PTI)
