THE third day’s play here on Saturday was not much different from the first two. The game meandered on at a slow pace making the proceedings dreary, at times, even painful to watch.

Sri Lanka understandably had no qualms about their own standing in this match after having accumulated 400-plus in the first innings; in addition, they were not in any kind of hurry to get amongst the wicket to cement their already strong position in the match.

Instead they resorted to the game of containment, bowling mostly down the leg-side with six and sometimes even seven fielders on the on-side — not allowing thus Pakistan batsmen to take liberty. It was the primary reason why openers Khurram Manzoor and Ahmed Shehzad batted for nearly 44 overs to take their stand to hundred-run mark.

There were, no doubt, negative tactics by Angelo Mathews and his bowlers to assure themselves of the series victory.

The Sri Lankans, who batting earlier had already displayed their tactics, decided not to put their bowlers under undue workload and just let them keep a steady line throughout the day in order to frustrate Pakistan batsmen, eventually leading to their downfall.

It was therefore a lot important for the openers to break from that shackle and snatch initiative to first avoid the follow-on and then pile runs to bid for an outside chance to turn the tables.

Unfortunately for us though Pakistan batsmen like the Sri Lankans in their turn were as muted and dull and contented themselves with self-preservation rather than going for calculated risks to score briskly.

Both Khurram and Shehzad in the process though recorded half-centuries, having batted for two and a half hours and two hours respectively to crawl along.

Shehzad I am glad in the end also did get his maiden century playing only his third Test. To be fair though he did however open up after that to play handsomely to help Pakistan avoid the follow-on besides sharing another partnership of over fifty with his captain.

The right-handed youngster was bowled reverse sweeping off Rangana Herath who like Abdur Rehman and Saeed Ajmal was unable to find any worthwhile assistance from a dormant pitch showing very little life even in fading hours.

A lot was expected of Younis Khan and Azhar Ali both of whom suffered soft dismissals and Asad Shafiq once again failed to grab the opportunity and succumb to pressure.

Sri Lanka in the end I suppose were well satisfied with their strategy of playing on, on the weaknesses of Pakistan batting to continue to dominate the proceedings.

Mathews and his men must have hoped that Pakistan in the end may relent without snatching back Sri Lanka’s firm hold on the match.

Still trailing by 137 runs with four wickets in hand, Pakistan are certainly not in a happy state.