COLOMBO: Mahela Jayawardene remained unbeaten on 49 in his farewell innings after spinner Rangana Herath’s career best figures of nine for 127 gave Sri Lanka control of the second Test against Pakistan here on Saturday.
The hosts, who trailed by 12 runs on the first innings, put on a strong batting performance to move to 177-2 in their second innings by stumps on the third day at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) Ground.
During the eventful day’s play, Pakistan’s wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed smashed a maiden Test century and Herath became the first left-arm bowler in history to take nine wickets in an innings.
Jayawardene and his close friend and long-time team-mate Kumar Sangakkara batted together for the last time in a Test match to put on 98 for the unbroken third wicket.
Jayawardene, who was warmly applauded to the crease by Pakistani fielders and some 4,000 home fans, played fluently to strike seven boundaries.
Left-handed Sangakkara was unbeaten on 54, with Sri Lanka 165 runs ahead with eight wickets in hand on a wearing pitch expected to assist spinners on the last two days.
Sangakkara became the fifth highest Test run-getter — surpassing the total of 11,953 from West Indies great Brian Lara. The former Sri Lankan captain reached the feat in his 128th Test.
Sri Lanka, who won the first Test in Galle by seven wickets, are hoping to sweep the short series to give Jayawardene, their former captain, a winning farewell.
“We need to continue the same way tomorrow and put up a big score,” Sri Lanka’s coach Marvan Atapattu said. “There is no target in our mind yet, but we will take stock when the spinners start getting more turn.”
Upul Tharanga made 45 in an opening stand of 54 with Kaushal Silva before both batsmen were dismissed by left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman in the post-lunch session.
Pakistan seamer Junaid Khan did not take the field in the second innings as he was taken to hospital and kept under observation after complaining of giddiness.
Junaid, who took five wickets in the first innings, had been hit on the helmet by a rising ball from Dhammika Prasad in the morning session.
“Junaid is much better now,” said Pakistan’s batting coach Grant Flower. “There was no internal bleeding and he is back from hospital. We will see how he feels tomorrow morning. But it’s too early to say whether he can bowl again in this game.”
Earlier, Sarfraz hit a gutsy 103 as Pakistan carried their overnight score of 244-6 to 332 before they were all out at the stroke of lunch in reply to Sri Lanka’s 320.
Sarfraz, who came to bat after tea on the second day with Pakistan struggling at 140-5, led a remarkable fightback by the lower order that enabled the tourists gain the slender lead.
But Herath grabbed attention in the morning session by claiming the four remaining wickets to finish with 9-127, only the second Sri Lankan after Muttiah Muralitharan to take nine wickets in an innings and the first of any nationality to do so since ‘Murali’ in 2002.
The 36-year-old Herath, who surpassed his previous best of seven for 89 against Bangladesh in Colombo last year, is currently the number one Test spinner in the official rankings.
He has claimed 255 wickets so far in 57 Tests.
Starting the day on 66, Sarfraz reached his hundred by hooking left-arm seamer Chanaka Welegedara for a six after pulling the previous delivery for a boundary.
He was ninth out with Pakistan just six runs away from taking the lead when he edged Herath to give wicket-keeper Niroshan Dickwella his fifth catch in the innings. Sarfraz’s 127-ball knock included seven fours and one six.
Scoreboard
SRI LANKA (1st Innings) 320 (W.U. Tharanga 92, J.K. Silva 41; Junaid Khan 5-87, Wahab Riaz 3-88).
PAKISTAN (1st Innings, overnight 244-6): Khurram Manzoor c Dickwella b Herath 23 Ahmed Shehzad c Dickwella b Perera 58 Azhar Ali c Mathews b Herath 32 Younis Khan c Dickwella b Herath 13 Misbah-ul-Haq c Dickwella b Herath 5 Asad Shafiq b Herath 42 Sarfraz Ahmed c Dickwella b Herath 103 Abdur Rehman c Jayawardene b Herath 16 Wahab Riaz c Welegedara b Herath 17 Saeed Ajmal b Herath 4 Junaid Khan not out 13
EXTRAS (LB-3, NB-3) 6 TOTAL (all out, 93.1 overs) 332 FALL OF WKTS: 1-47, 2-110, 3-122, 4-131, 5-140, 6-233, 7-273, 8-301, 9-315. BOWLING: Prasad 16-4-53-0 (3nb); Welegedara 18-2-65-0; Herath 33.1-3-127-9; Mathews 9-1-21-0; Perera 17-1-63-1.
SRI LANKA (2nd innings):
W.U. Tharanga b Rehman 45 J.K. Silva c Younis b Rehman 17 K.C. Sangakkara not out 54 D.P.M.D. Jayawardene not out 49 EXTRAS (B-9, LB-1, W-1, NB-1) 12 TOTAL (for two wkts, 63 overs) 177 Fall of wkts: 1-54, 2-79. BOWLING (to-date): Wahab Riaz 14-1-50-0 (1nb, 1w); Abdur Rehman 24-3-65-2; Saeed Ajmal 23-5-47-0; Ahmed Shehzad 2-0-5-0.
Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2014