Rain took out large chunks of play on the first day in Galle, but either side of each of those stoppages Pakistan and Sri Lanka engaged in an intriguing tug of war, one that saw the visitors streak ahead courtesy a Shaheen Shah Afridi three-wicket burst, before the hosts reeled them back with a 131-run fifth wicket stand between Angelo Mathews and Dhananjaya de Silva.

While Mathews, who had looked imperious during his 109-ball 64, fell on the stroke of tea Dhananjaya stitched another crucial partnership with Sadeera Samarawickrama (36 off 57), before Pakistan struck one final blow on the stroke of stumps, as Samarawickrama was caught brilliantly at short leg by Imam-ul-Haq. Sri Lanka have 242 for 6 on the board.

Those last two wickets arguably made it Pakistan’s day, with Ramesh Mendis, now the last recognised batter alongside Dhananjaya, set to come in next. But with Dhananjaya still unbeaten on 94 off 157 deliveries, Pakistan won’t be getting ahead of themselves, especially after he spent most of the day showcasing his increasingly uncanny knack of delivering when Sri Lanka needed him most.

This time he came to the crease with his side 54 for 4. This was during the hour’s play in the morning session between an 85-minute rain break and a late lunch. Afridi had already dispatched Nishan Madushka to grab his 100th Test wicket in the little over five overs of play before rain intervened, but he really took things up a notch following the break, squaring up Kusal Mendis to have him caught at second slip and then strangling the set Dimuth Karunaratne down the leg side.

When Dinesh Chandimal wafted at a fullish delivery outside off stump from Naseem Shah to be gobbled up expertly by Babar Azam at third slip, Sri Lanka might have been fearing the worst. But Dhananjaya and Mathews weathered that storm and made it through to lunch.

After the break however, with the sun having come out, any movement the seamers had seen earlier in the day was all but gone. This was when Mathews and Dhananjaya got to work, negating whatever Pakistan threw at them. One hundred and twenty runs came in this session.

Mathews was in rich form, playing a couple of sumptuous straight drives. Babar Azam briefly flirted with a short-ball strategy, but gave up on it within the span of an over after both Mathews and Dhananjaya showed they were unfazed – possibly down to the ball holding up in the surface whenever it was dug in.

As such, a majority of the middle session was bowled by spinners Abrar Ahmed and Noman Ali. However, with it still being day one in Galle, there was hardly any turn on offer and it was difficult for either of them to build any sort of concerted pressure. Mathews found it fairly easy to rotate strike, while Dhananjaya took it upon himself to take on the role of aggressor. Noman was the unlucky recipient of most of this aggression, being taken for four fours and a pair of sixes – the most memorable an elegant inside-out drive over long-off.

Then, as the session wound to a close, the run rate quickened as Mathews joined in on the act, taking Agha Salman for back-to-back boundaries through midwicket; in all, he would score nine boundaries. He was looking well set for what would have been his 16th Test century when he feathered a cut through to the keeper off Abrar.

It was at this point where Sri Lanka probably struggled the most aside from that early Afridi spell, with Samarawickrama unable to read Abrar’s variations. Figuring out the direction of the turn off the pitch didn’t work all that well either considering he was beaten several times on both the inside and the outside edge. But whatever pressure that was being built would consistently be released by the odd loose ball.

At the other end, with Noman largely ineffective, Babar opted to go with Naseem, where once more the short ball strategy, as well a variety of different field placements such as catching mid-ons and mid-offs, were trialled to little effect.

But once rain halted play again midway through the final session, Pakistan picked up a second wind and produced a fascinating seven-over period before the end of play.

While Afridi operated from one end, once more finding lateral movement off the deck when earlier there seemed to be none, Abrar was troubling Samarawickrama. It was however Salman, who had been largely ineffective, who made the crucial breakthrough, called in to bowl the final over of the day – his fifth in total – getting Samarawickrama to pop one off bat and pad to the right of Imam, who dived full length to his right and somehow held on, as Pakistan ended the day the happier of the two sides.