Pakistan captain Babar Azam stood firm amid a batting collapse to compile his seventh hundred on Sunday, leading his side’s fightback against Sri Lanka on Day II of the opening Test at the Galle International Stadium.
Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya continued his dream start in Tests, picking up his third five-wicket haul in as many innings and helping the hosts reduce Pakistan to 85 for 7 at one stage.
But Pakistan added 133 for their last three wickets to reach 218, courtesy Babar’s heroic 119 before the 27-yearold became the final wicket to fall for the visitors. Sri Lanka extended their overall lead to 40 at the close of play, reaching 36 for 1 in their second innings at stumps on Sunday, after losing captain Dimuth Karunaratne for 16.
Babar curbed his attacking instincts and farmed most of the strike to shield Pakistan’s tail-end batters, adding 27 for the eighth wicket with Yasir Shah (18), another 36 for the ninth with Hasan Ali (17) and a further 70 for the last with Naseem Shah (5). The stylish right-hander, who during his knock became the fastest Pakistan batter to complete 10,000 international runs, leapt and punched the air as he scampered for a single off off-spinner Maheesh Theekshana to get to three figures. No. 11 batter Naseem scored his first run in the 39th ball he faced, showing resolute defence to hang around with his skipper during his unbeaten 52-ball stay.
For Sri Lanka, the 30-year old Jayasuriya, who took 12 wickets on debut against Australia recently at the same venue, spun a web around Pakistan’s middle-order batters with figures of 5/82. The off-spin duo of Theekshana and Ramesh Mendis provided able support by picking up two wickets each. Sri Lanka have won 22 of their 39 previous Tests in Galle, where the pitch offers a lot of turn and bounce for the spinners and the hosts’ spinners have once again put them in a good position