Pakistan on cusp of victory after another record-breaking day

Khalid H. Khan Published December 23, 2019

KARACHI: Pakistan batsman Babar Azam plays a late cut during his century in the second Test against Sri Lanka at the National Stadium on Sunday.
—Tahir Jamal/White Star — KARACHI: Pakistan batsman Babar Azam plays a late cut during his century in the second Test against Sri Lanka at the National Stadium on Sunday. —Tahir Jamal/White Star

KARACHI: Pakistan were on cusp of a resounding victory on another record-breaking day in the historic home series after Sri Lanka stuttered in their improbable chase of 476 in the second and final fixture of the ICC World Test Championship at the National Stadium here on Sunday.

By close of play on the penultimate day, the visitors were down in the mire at 212-7, despite an outstanding maiden century from Oshada Fernando, after the top order was rattled by the pace of teenage sensation Nasim Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi.

After Pakistan closed their second innings at 555-3 during the lunch interval after captain Azhar Ali and Babar Azam joined openers Abid Ali and Shan Masood in rewriting cricketing history with centuries, Sri Lanka had to face music in the remaining two sessions of the fourth day’s play.

The pressure of batting last on a true pitch with odd deliveries creeping low at times, eventually played on the minds of the Sri Lankan batsmen. However, all credit to the Pakistan bowlers who never let Sri Lankan top order, barring of course the admirable Fernando, get going and plucked out three wickets for 86 runs in the afternoon period.

Mohammad Abbas set the tone by removing Dimuth Karunaratne to an acrobatic effort by wicket-keeper Mohammad Rizwan who scooped up the catch while diving low to his left. After the captain went for 16, Sri Lanka lost Kusal Mendis, who got himself caught in the slips every time he batted on this tour. On this occasion, the talented right-hander only succeeded in giving Babar a catching practice at third slip off Nasim.

When it appeared the tourists had weathered the early storm, they were jolted once again as Angelo Mathews (19) was undone by a slanting delivery from the big left-armer Shaheen, with Rizwan holing another brilliant catch, inches off the turf.

The talk of the match concluding within four days became a real possibility when Nasim got a DRS verdict overturned after pinning Dinesh Chandimal — the top-scorer in the first innings with 74 — in front only for Australian umpire Bruce Oxenford to ignore the vociferous appeal.

Dhananjaya de Silva crumbled under the mounting pressure by chopping the ball onto the stumps for a duck, much to the relief of Yasir Shah who finally celebrated his first wicket on the home soil, and thereby equalled former great Saqlain Mushtaq’s haul of 208 Test victims.

With Sri Lanka on the brink of collapsing down like a pack of cards, Pakistan then faced spirited resistance from Fernando and Niroshan Dickwella. For the next 106 minutes the pair scored briskly to build a defiant stand of 104.

And came the twist in the tail when Dickwella tried one reverse sweep too many and paid the ultimate price as Haris Sohail rattled the stumps to send on the wicket-keeper/batsman on his way for a pugnacious 65 (off 76 balls, 11 boundaries).

Sri Lanka’s misery was further extend in the last over of the evening as Dilruwan Perera (5) had no answer to a quick ball from Nasim with Rizwan doing the rest.

The solitary positive for the visitors was Fernando, who justified his opening role with a deserving hundred. The 27-year-old from Colombo — now standing on the threshold of carrying his bat through the innings in just his fourth Test — came off with his head high on after striking 13 fours in an unconquered 102 from 175 balls to warm applause from a crowd of just over 12,000 – easily the biggest of this Test.

Fernando was understandably livid at his team-mates for surrendering their wickets when told reporters: “As a unit I think we should have performed much better because some of the dismissals were really disappointing. Personally I’m happy to make my first hundred for Sri Lanka but there is no excuse [for others] because the pitch is still good for batting.”

Earlier in the day, it was the extension of Pakistan’s batting tale. Azhar returned to form with a bang as the 34-year-old right-hander finally reached three figures for the first time after more than a year — his previous ton being 134 against New Zealand at Abu Dhabi — with a stroke-filled innings of 118. The irrepressible Babar’s purple patch, meanwhile, continued as the 25-year-old eased his way to a third century in last four Tests.

Resuming at 395-2 with an overnight commanding lead of 315, Pakistan put their foot on the accelerator from the onset and went in the overdrive mode to blast 160 runs in the morning session, while scoring at unheard rate of 5.92 from the 27 overs.

Azhar, who was batting with 57 and Babar on 22 at draw of stumps on Saturday, looked a completely different man from the one who had a dreadful 2019, that is until the second innings here. The expression on his face upon reaching the coveted ton — his 16th in 77 Tests with a couple by cutting spinner Lasith Embuldeniya behind point — depicted how relieved was the Pakistan skipper.

Otherwise Azhar’s scores from the second innings of that New Zealand Test in December 2018 made dreadful reading: 5, 36, 0, 2, 6, 0, 15, 39, 5, 9, 9, 36 and 0. Azhar’s regaining form at long last has to be credited to Saturday’s grand opening partnership between Abid (174) and Shan (135) who together laid the platform of Pakistan’s remarkable comeback after the first day’s horrors when they capitulated inside 60 overs for 191 and then saw Sri Lanka obtain a handy lead of 80.

Azhar’s resurgence with the bat also made him only the second Pakistan captain to score hundred and a duck in the same match, the other being now head coach-cum-chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq who made 114 in the first innings of the 2016 Lord’s Test against England but perished without his opening account in the second.

The collective achievement of the Pakistan quartet is just the second instance — and first in a second innings — of the top four batsmen posting centuries. The first time it happened was in the Dhaka Test in May 2007 when Dinesh Karthik (129), Wasim Jaffer (138, retired ill), Rahul Dravid (129) and Sachin Tendulkar (122 not out) toyed with the Bangladesh bowling as India amassed 610-3 declared in the first innings.

Azhar, who struck 13 boundaries during the 157-ball knock in 235 minutes, was stumped by Dickwella to enable Embuldeniya take his only wicket of the innings after 46 overs of toil while breaking the 148-run stand for the third wicket in 136 minutes with Babar.

The stage then belonged to Babar. Having overturning a DRS verdict after West Indies umpire Joel Wilson adjudged him leg-before to Lahiru Kumara on 33, the classy right-hander sped away to a glorious hundred and third straight 50-plus score in the series just before lunch. The undefeated 100 off 131 deliveries with the aid of seven fours and one six came on the heels of 102 not out in the Rawalpindi Test and 60 in the first innings here.

Rizwan, promoted to up the ante, chipped in with 21 until Azhar applied the closure. As it stands now, Monday’s final day of the series definitely points in one direction as Pakistan need only three more wickets to register their first win last November.