Sri Lanka suffered their worst defeat at home, losing the second Test against Pakistan by an innings and 222 at the Sinhalese Sports Club today, as the visitors swept the series and claimed valuable World Test Championship (WTC) points.

The last time Sri Lanka recorded a defeat this devastating was 30 years ago when, ironically at this same venue, South Africa beat them by an innings and 208 runs.

With a 410-run deficit to wipe out to make the visitors bat again, Sri Lanka’s innings was unraveled by Noman Ali, who claimed a career-best 7 for 70 in the afternoon session, before the swing, pace and sheer determination of Naseem Shah ripped apart and shredded Sri Lanka’s tail-enders.

The hosts had made a confident start with a 69-run partnership between openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Nishan Maduska, before left-arm spinner Ali struck with his first ball, creating enough deviation to beat Maduska’s defence and bowl him for 33.

Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis played out the rest of the session, though without adding much more runs, as Sri Lanka reached lunch at 81 for 1.

It didn’t take long after the break for Ali to trigger a collapse, the home team losing five wickets for 55 runs in the afternoon session, all falling to Noman Ali as they were put under pressure by a collective Pakistani bowling effort – the solitary fight back coming from veteran Angelo Mathews who remained unbeaten on 63.

The first pin to drop was Karunaratne in the second over after the break, with Karunaratne advancing down the wicket to draw an edge that was snapped up by Imam-Ul-Haq at short leg.

Five overs later, with only 23 runs added in that phase, Kusal Mendis attempted to go inside out, but failed to clear Saud Shakeel at cover.

With scoring progressively stifled, Dinesh Chandimal’s mistimed paddled sweep sent a looping catch to ul-Haq at short leg, though the batsman chose to challenge the umpire’s decision.

There appeared to be an element of doubt as to whether the ball hit Chandimal’s glove, with replays proving inconclusive, which meant the third umpire could not overturn the on-field call.

Dhananjaya de Silva and Sadeera Samarawickrama also fell victim to Ali as Sri Lanka slipped to 141 for 6.

A 36-run partnership between Mathews and Ramesh Mendis was broken when the latter charged Ali, but the wily spinner beat the bat with turn and bounce for Mohammad Rizwan to complete a stumping.

Shah’s second spell, during which the pace bowler extracted swing and pace went unrewarded, with his five overs including four maidens and conceding just eight runs.

His third spell would prove his best though, more fired up by the lack of success, and being unfortunate to have three umpire reviews against Ramesh Mendis side against him, a sense of frustration visibly growing in the bowler.

He would have just reward however, bowling Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando and Dilshan Madushanka for ducks, over six deliveries.

Unexpectedly, Pakistan captain Babar Azam chose not to declare his innings overnight, despite concerns that rain could intervene over the final two days of the match, but it turned out that it took him just two overs into play today to make that call.

The first of those two overs was played out run-less by Agha Salman, before Mohammad Rizwan took three boundaries off Prabath Jayasuriya in the next over to reach his half-century. That appeared to be what Azam wanted to see before pulling the trigger to declare his team’s first innings on 576, for a lead of 410. (Shehan Daniel at the SSC / Pix: Kushan Pathiraja)

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