PAKISTAN captain Azhar Ali is bowled by Sri Lankan fast bowler Vishwa Fernando on Thursday.—White Star
Asad also revealed that he couldn’t clearly judge out when Haris sought advice whether to ask for DRS after being given out leg-before to left-armer Embuldeniya, who tossed up one that turned back into the left-hander to hit low in front of the stumps.
“Actually I was never in a position to offer advice since I was standing at an angle from where it was impossible to judge the length and the spin. So Haris took the risk,” he said.
Apart from Asad — who failed to keep down a half-tracker from Kumara and paid the ultimate price the top-edge land down Vishwa Fernando’s lap — Babar Azam yet again looked a class act with a crisp knock of 60 to follow on the heels of that unbeaten ton in the Rawalpindi Test last week.
Babar, who struck the ball sweetly, including a straight six off Embuldeniya while adding 62 with Asad, was eyeing his third century in four Tests until a brilliantly flighted delivery beat him as he charged down the pitch and was stumped by the alert Niroshan Dickwella. Babar’s innings featured eight fours.
Earlier, Pakistan once again began their innings disastrously. Vishwa Fernando continued his dominance of Shan Masood (5) by getting the left-handed opener glued to the crease with a full-length ball which disturbed the timbers.
But the biggest disappointment from Pakistan’s perspective was their struggling skipper when Azhar was undone by a ripper in the same over as Fernando uprooted the off stump for his second wicket in three deliveries.
Abid Ali, fresh from his record-breaking 109 in the first Test, caught the eye with some delightful strokes, the pick of them being an effortless punch to the cover boundary. The opener shaped up quite well but after making 38 (66 balls, seven fours and one six), Kumara pushed him back deep into crease. The resultant LBW verdict was upheld by Brathwaite after Abid went for a referral, but it was all in vain.
Embuldeniya, in the meantime, candidly remarked that a patch had already developed on the good length area at the University Road, while echoing Asad’s words about the state of the pitch. “As the game moves forward the pitch would start deteriorating and the spot from which I managed to extract spin will become unplayable for the batsmen to combat,” Embuldeniya, who grabbed four for 71 from 20.3 overs, told reporters. “Therefore, we have to bat really well to take a lead big enough to put Pakistan under pressure.”
Sri Lanka will be now relying heavily on the experienced shoulders of Angelo Mathews to carry them into a position of ascendency on Friday’s second day. The former captain had made eight from 16 balls by stumps in the first full day of play in this series.
Scoreboard
PAKISTAN (1st Innings):
Shan Masood b V. Fernando 5
Abid Ali lbw b Kumara 38
Azhar Ali b V. Fernando 0
Babar Azam st Dickwella b Embuldeniya 60
Asad Shafiq c V. Fernando b Kumara 63
Haris Sohail lbw b Embuldeniya 9
Mohammad Rizwan b Kumara 4
Yasir Shah lbw b Kumara 0
M. Abbas c de Silva b Embuldeniya 0
Shaheen Afridi c Mathews b Embuldeniya 5
Nasim Shah not out 1
EXTRAS (B-4, LB-2) 6
TOTAL (all out, 59.3 overs) 191
FALL OF WKTS: 1-10, 2-10, 3-65, 4-127, 5-167, 6-172, 7-172, 8-179, 9-185
BOWLING: M.V.T. Fernando 13-3-31-2; Kumara 18=5-49-4; Karunaratne 1-0-11-0; Embuldeniya 20.3-3-71-4; Perera 7-0-23-0
SRI LANKA (1st Innings):
B.O.P. Fernando c Rizwan b Shaheen 4
F.D.M. Karunaratne b Abbas 25
B.K.G. Mendis c Haris b Abbas 13
A.D. Mathews not out 8
L. Embuldeniya not out 3
EXTRAS (LB-6, W-5) 11
TOTAL (for three wkts, 19 overs) 64
FALL OF WKTS: 1-28, 2-39, 3-61
TO BAT: L.D. Chandimal, D.M. de Silva, N. Dickwella, M.D.K. Perera, M.V.T. Fernando, C.B.R.L.S. Kumara
BOWLING (to-date): Shaheen Shah Afridi 6-2-18-1; Mohammad Abbas 8-3-21-2; Nasim Shah 5-0-19-0 (1w)
UMPIRES: B.N.J. Oxenford (Australia) and J.S. Wilson (West Indies)
TV UMPIRE: G.O. Brathwaite (West Indies)
MATCH REFEREE: J.J. Crowe (New Zealand)
Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2019