Babar ton restricts SL lead after Jayasuriya’s five-for82
Sri Lanka, who at one stage seemed set to take a commanding lead, claimed one of only four runs and were 40 runs ahead by stumps 82
Babar Azam’s sensational seventh Test ton restricted Sri Lanka’s lead to just four runs
Sri Lanka 36 for 1 (Oshada 17*, Nawaz 1-12) and 222 all out lead Pakistan 218 all out (Babar 119, Jayasuriya 5-82) by 40 runs
Prabath Jayasuriya terrorized Pakistan in the first session before Babar Azam struck a valiant 119, much of it in the company of No. 11 Naseem Shah, as the hosts surged back into the match either side of tea. Between Jayasuriya’s 5 for 82, and Pakistan’s 70-run last-wicket stand, the teams ended day two roughly even in the context of the match.
Sri Lanka, who at one stage seemed set to take a commanding lead, claimed one of only four runs and were 40 runs ahead by stumps. They had lost captain Dimuth Karunaratne to the left-arm spin of Mohammad Nawaz. Nightwatchmen Kasun Rajitha was at the crease alongside Oshada Fernando.
Babar’s century was extraordinary for how many of his runs came in the company of the tail. When Pakistan lost their seventh wicket, he was on 28. When they lost their eighth, on 36. One wicket to go, he was on 55. And this was when he started farming the strike beautifully, facing 133 of the 185 balls Sri Lanka delivered to the last-wicket pair.
It wasn’t as if he suddenly switched to hyper-aggression either. Sri Lanka put their field back for Babar, routinely putting at least seven fielders on the boundary while he was on strike, then bringing the field in for Naseem. Thanks in part to Naseem’s resolute defence, and refusal to be tempted into big shots even when the spinners tossed it tantalizingly into the air, Babar kept pressing. Occasionally, he would have enough of merely taking the single off the fourth or fifth ball, and ventured boundaries. Against Kasun Rajitha, for example, who he smoked down the ground, lashed over midwicket, then whipped aerially through deep square leg, to hit three successive boundaries off the last three balls of the over.
This was after Naseem had proven his mettle, though. Next over, he saw six Jayasuriya balls out, much to the frustration of the bowler, who kicked the turf when his last ball – a quicker one at the stumps – was blocked out. Naseem’s contribution to a 70-run partnership was just five runs. But he survived, unbeaten, for 52 balls.
This pair having come together roughly midway through the second session, Pakistan went to tea with Babar needing five more for his hundred, which he got three balls into resumption, whipping a full toss from Maheesh Theekshana through wide mid-on for four, before nurdling a single square on the legside to completed his seventh Test hundred, and third against Sri Lanka. He’d turned down many singles for the sake of keeping the strike before this.
He hit two more boundaries – a six over wide long-on off Jayasuriya, and four through square leg off the same bowler, before eventually Theekshana spun an off break through his defenses and hit him in front of the stumps. The last-wicket stand had taken them from 148 for 9, to 218.
Earlier, it had been Jayasuriya who ran the show. First ball of the day, he had Azhar Ali chipping to cover, only for Dimuth Karunaratne to shell the chance. It didn’t matter. He slid one into Azhar’s pad two balls later. Bowling unchanged at the fort end right through that first session, he also removed debutant Agha Salman with a straighter one, then claimed the wickets of Mohammad Nawaz (jumping down the pitch, clipping straight to short leg who held a chance that hit his chest), and Shaheen Afridi (lbw) off successive deliveries.
Having also dismissed Abdullah Shafique the previous evening, this completed Jayasuriya’s third five-wicket haul in as-many bowling innings. He was not quite so good against the tail, failing to break through after lunch, as Yasir Shah, and Hasan Ali put on useful stands worth 27 and 36, respectively, with Babar. In his 39 overs, during which he secured figures of 5 for 82, Jayasuriya repeatedly beat right-handed batters’ outside edge, and threatened their pads with his straighter one. Ramesh Mendis, who took 2 for 18 from his 13 overs, was more economical and gained greater turn. But no one threatened like Jayasuriya.
Babar batted slow, trusted his defense and played another sublime innings when no one else could get to even 20
World-class Babar Azam constructs an innings that only he could…