On the first day of the ongoing second Test, the Pakistan batsmen were caught in on a pitch which had an exaggerated movement. On Thursday, however, with strong sunshine beaming over the turf, the whole nature of the strip had drastically changed in favour of batsmen which was a boon for the Sri Lankans who found little, if any, difficulty in facing the Pakistani bowlers.

Neither Junaid Khan nor Bilawal Bhatti managed to extract life out of it. Nor did Saeed Ajmal, the only specialist spinner in the side. Pakistan’s reward on a flat pitch before lunch was the prized wicket of Kumar Sangakkara who fell to Rahat Ali’s rare delivery in line of the wicket, and Dinesh Chandimal’s scalp who fell to Junaid’s bouncer.

Unless Rahat stops wasting three or four of his deliveries in an over while bowling wide of the off stump, he may not be able to deliver for his skipper who surprisingly retained him at the expense of Mohammad Talha or Abdul Rehman. Rahat churned over after over without much impact, though, he was a bit unlucky when wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed dropped Angelo Mathews off his bowling.

That patience pays in cricket was well displayed by Kaushal Silva who showed tremendous temperament and concentration while playing in only his fifth Test to prove that there is plenty in store for the rest of the Sri Lankan batsmen who easily went past Pakistan’s meagre first innings score to consolidate their position in the match. A hefty lead will surely help them put Pakistan batsmen under pressure when they bat for the second time.

Silva fell just five short of his maiden Test hundred but at least he had laid the foundation for a massive lead, having added 139 runs for the fourth wicket with out of form Mahela Jayawardene who laboured for just over three hours to get to his fifty. It was perhaps because of a stitched webbing between in his left hand fingers, having sustained an injury on the first day while attempting a catch in the slip.

At times Jayawardene did show discomfort when rolling his wrist to pull or when he defended off the back foot to faster bowlers. He, however, played himself back into form by notching his 32nd Test century after a gap of almost a year and nine months to end the day well assured of his team’s position.

When a batsman of his experience and calibre, with over 10,000 runs in Tests, gets into his grooves then frustration starts to show on the faces of the bowlers and it did on Pakistan bowlers who toiled in vain all day trying to restrict Sri Lanka taking a huge lead.

It is in situations like this that an extra spinner comes to the rescue and that is where I am sure Misbah and his men may have started to feel the pinch. Flat and straight, the wicket may not have had that kind of life to help the bowlers but it certainly had the scope for variety and Rehman’s inclusion could have been handy.

The unbroken fifth wicket stand between Jayawardene and Mathews may pose even greater problems when the play gets underway today.