KARACHI: After an arduous day for the visiting Sri Lanka side, their assistant coach Rumesh Ratnayake said that the decisive final Test of the two-match has tilted Pakistan’s way following the epic opening partnership from the bats of Abid Ali and Shan Masood.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Abid and Shan played brilliantly to take the game away from Sri Lanka despite all our efforts to stem the flow of runs,” Ratnayake, who was the interim head coach during the ODI and T20 series in September/October, frankly admitted during the media conference. “Credit must be given the way their openers batted to put Pakistan in full control.”

The former Test paceman, who is replaced by ex-Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur on the eve of team’s departure for the ongoing series lamented the lack of game plans from Sri Lanka on Saturday.

“We didn’t stick to our plans as well as we should have because at the start of the day our aim was to restrict them as much as possible. Each session we had certain targets in our minds,” Ratnayake remarked. “We wanted to keep them to 70 to 80 runs per session, but we couldn’t do that at all. The pitch became easy to bat today.”

Commenting on Sri Lanka’s prospects on the remaining two days of the match, Ratnayake said: “The fourth day will be interesting and our prime target tomorrow would be to restrict them as much as possible. Now it is up to the bowlers [to deliver] and not just rely on [Lahiru] Kumara and [Lasith] Embuldeniya, The others must take responsibility and bowled as tightly as they can.

“Some of the guys did it, but some didn’t, it is simple as that. Those [bowling] partnerships didn’t work today, which I felt was a big miss. Moreover, I don’t think tiredness is an excuse at this level of cricket. I’m sure they would have been tired. Everyone gets tired. But at Test level that shouldn’t be an excuse. If Lahiru did well, others should have taken that lead.”

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2019