GALLE: National team captain Babar Azam shone with an astonishing century to propel the team out of crisis as Pakistan managed 218 runs in the first innings before Sri Lanka made it 36/1 late in day two play in the first Test, here on Sunday.
The skipper marked his seventh Test hundred and reached the milestone of 10,000 international runs during his crucial slam of 119 runs before right-arm spinner Maheesh Theekshana fired him in one leg before the wicket.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan spinner Prabath Jayasuriya wreaked havoc on Pakistan’s batting line as he took his third consecutive five-wicket haul, following his phenomenal Test debut in the last match against Australia, grabbing six wickets in each entry.
Aside from Babar, the rest of Pakistan’s batsmen remained defenseless against Sri Lanka’s spinning attack as the team was struggling at 148/9 before a phenomenal 70-run last-wicket partnership between captain and bottom-of-the-line Naseem Shah. .
Babar remained the main run contributor in the rough post of the 10th wicket, while Naseem put up strong resistance not to offer his wicket.
Sri Lanka started their second innings with a four-run lead and got off to a solid start before Mohammad Nawaz struck in the penultimate innings to eliminate captain Dimuth Karunaratne in 16.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan experienced complete batting chaos after resuming with the overnight score of 24/2. Jayasuriya got rid of Azhar Ali with just the third ball when play resumed half an hour late on the second day.
Goalkeeper Mohammad Rizwan and skipper Babar Azam put up some resistance and made a 41-run partnership before Rizwan fell to Ramesh Mendis for a total of 64.
The next three wickets fell in quick succession as the left arm spinner dropped debutant Salman Agha in a scant 5 runs, before taking back-to-back wickets from Mohammad Nawaz and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Yasir Shah briefly teamed up with Babar before falling prey to Theekshana on the 18th after lunch, while Hasan Ali was sent back to the pavilion by Ramesh Mendis on the 17th.
For Sri Lanka, Jayasuriya remained the leading wicket-taker with five wickets, while Mendis and Theekshana each took two wickets with Kasun Rajitha taking a scalp.
Earlier, Sri Lanka finished the opening day of the first Test in a relatively comfortable position by firing the starting pair of Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq cheaply after their batsmen could only muster 222 in the first innings.
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