Dhananjaya delights, leaves Pakistan with record chase

By Shehan Daniel at the Galle International Stadium

Sri Lanka’s push for a series-levelling win was resisted by Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam, after Dhananjaya de Silva’s ninth century had effectively batted Pakistan out of the second Test in Galle.

The hosts’ own chances of victory were diminished by bad light and rain that wiped out 26 overs of play yesterday, leaving Sri Lanka a maximum of three sessions to bowl out Pakistan.

In hindsight, the home team’s decision to bat until around midway through the afternoon session may end up costing them the chance to win the Test, but with Pakistan’s history of record-breaking run chases in Sri Lanka, Dimuth Karunaratne would have been compelled to err on the side of caution and make sure the hosts had enough runs on the board.

When Pakistan resumes their run chase today, they will do so requiring a further 419 runs to win having reached stumps on day four on 89 for 1.

Pakistan made a positive start reaching a healthy 34 for no loss in ten overs, Abdullah Shafique and Imam taking every opportunity that was presented to them, collecting five boundaries.  

But Sri Lanka tightened things over the next five overs, conceding just seven runs, forcing Shafique to take the charge to left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya, only to slice the ball in the air over mid-off, where debutant Dunith Wellalage ran back to complete a well-judged catch diving forward.

Sri Lanka could have had another wicket had an outside edge from Imam in the next over not flown over the head of the slip fielder, and a flick not landed just short of Oshada Fernando at short leg, Pakistan on 71 for 1 at tea.
Only six more overs of play was possible after the break, before bad light and rain forced the early end at which point Imam was closing on a half-century, on 46, and Babar Azam was 26 not out.

De Silva strengthened Sri Lanka’s position in the game with a stylish hundred, flipping through his entire shot catalogue and reproducing the best of his hits – the dabs past slip, the neat flicks through the leg, the clean sweeps, and precise gap-breaching drives – scoring 16 boundaries in an innings of 109.

That helped Sri Lanka extend an overnight lead of 323 to 444 by lunch, with Karunarante and de Silva withstanding an early assault from Pakistan’s seamers before quickly settling in to add 52 runs in the first hour of play.

Having scored just two runs off the first 20 balls he faced in the day, de Silva scored his first boundary off Yasir Shah with a dab that beat the slip field and ran down to third man.

He took another boundary off Shah’s next over and off Nauman Ali two overs later, pushing his sixth wicket partnership with Karunaratne passed the 100-run mark.

Karunaratne reached his 31st half-century by that time, a high percentage of his runs coming by running between the wickets, despite suffering from lower back spasms that had kept him off the field during Pakistan’s first innings -- de Silva in contrast scored a majority of his runs in fours.

Karunaratne’s wicket ended a 126-run partnership, with Wellalage also falling shortly before lunch.

Sri Lanka continued adding runs with a contribution of 45 coming from Ramesh Mendis, who partnered de Silva for an 82-run partnership, pushed Sri Lanka’s lead past 500, before a declaration was called when the centurion was run out midway through the afternoon session.