Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka by 4 wickets in the first session of the final day, in a close encounter at Galle. They have finally managed to win a Test match after 365 days. They won their last test at the same ground one year ago.
Pakistan won the first game and lead the two-match Test series 1-0. Faced with a little score to defend, Sri Lanka fought well to keep this match in their pocket but Imam-ul-Haq had some other plans, he scored a well-fought unbeaten 50 off 84 balls on a turning track which was not easy and took his team to victory.
Prabath Jayasuriya was the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka with 4 wickets for 56 runs in the second innings. The Lankans tried hard to win this game but were second best to the better team on paper and performance.
Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first. But they lost wickets at regular intervals. Dhananjaya de Silva stepped up alongside Angelo Mathews with the former scoring a magnificent 122 and Mathews scoring 64 in the first innings. Sadeera chipped in with 36 as Sri Lanka ended with a score of 312 in their first innings. Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, and Abrar Ahmad picked 3 wickets each while Agha Salman picked the other.
In reply to Sri Lanka’s 312, Pakistan Team were crumbling at a moment, and losing half of their batters at just a mere score of 101 was not sustainable for them. But they were rescued by a majestic inning from Saud Shakeel as he remained unbeaten on a magical 208* off 361 balls, his maiden Test double-century. Agha Salman played his part well and scored 83 while Shan Masood scored a quick 39 off 30 balls. Ramesh Mendis picked up 5 wickets while P Jayasuriya scalped 3 wickets into his pockets. Vishwa Fernando and K Rajitha took one wicket each.
After trailing by 149 runs in the second innings, Sri Lanka felt the pressure and started losing their wicket from the start. Nishan Madushanka stood there for a while but departed after scoring 52. Dhananjaya de Silva stepped up again with his 82 off 118 balls but couldn’t help his team in surviving this long battle.
Sri Lanka could only manage to score 279 in their second innings. This time Nauman Ali and Abrar Ahman took 3 wickets each. Agha Salman got 2 and Afridi scalped some remaining wickets.
In pursuit of 131 for the win, Pakistan lost their wickets early and started crumbling to chase down this low score but Imam-ul-Haq’s unbeaten 50 and Saud Shakeel’s 30 off 38 balls helped Pakistan in defeating Sri Lanka. This was the first Test win in the last 365 days for Pakistan as they had won their last test in Galle on July 20, 2022.
The second Test which is to be played on July 24 will be a must-win game for Sri Lanka. They will be looking forward to winning the second Test and ending this series on a draw. The start has not been so good for Sri Lanka in this WTC cycle.
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