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Sri Lanka very much in control as Pakistan resist
by CricketArchive Staff Reporter


Player:DPMD Jayawardene, TT Samaraweera, Salman Butt, Khurram Manzoor
Event:Sri Lanka in Pakistan 2008/09

DateLine: 22nd February 2009

 

The torture continued for Pakistan as their bowlers could not locate the perfect length on a pitch that was increasingly becoming a graveyard for bowlers. When they did locate the batsmen were caught in two minds and were beaten. Jayawardene who got two lives in the previous day made full use of that and together with Samaraweera batted serenely to take Sri Lanka to a position from where they could dictate terms.

 

Pakistan were frugal today as they blocked the boundaries but there were open spaces available for the batsmen to work the ball around and rotate the strike. Sri Lanka in the morning session scored 99 runs in 30 overs but more importantly did not lose a wicket. Both the batsmen were prepared to graft as the first boundary of the day came only in the 14th over but then once Sohail Khan was introduced with Kaneria at the other end runs began to flow with a little more ease. Both the batsmen took the score to an imposing 505 for the loss of just three wickets.

 

The second session saw records falling one after the other as Jayawardene and Samaraweera stitched together a record 437 runs for the fourth wicket. Sri Lanka also crossed the previous highest score at the stadium which was 599 scored by Pakistan against India and the pair also beat the previous highest partnership for any wicket at the Karachi stadium. The pair during the second session upped the ante and it seemed as if they knew that no bowler on view was capable of disturbing them. Both Jayawardene and Samaraweera crossed their respective double hundreds, Jayawardene's fifth and Samaraweera's first in Test cricket.

 

The limitations of the attack was there to be seen as no bowler looked capable of producing a brilliant spell. Arafat was steady, Sohail Khan was pedestrian, Gul bowled a decent spell though not a penetrative one, Kaneria was a mixture of beautiful and bad balls and Malik was noting but restrictive. Even Salman Butt turned his arm over and Samaraweera helped himself to a couple of boundaries. The pair was separated when Jayawardene top-edged a tired sweep shot and Akmal took a good one-handed catch. Six balls later Samaraweera was beaten by Danish Kaneria's googly and more excitement was in store for Pakistan when Tillekaratne Dilshan edged Shoaib Malik on the stroke of tea. Three wickets had gone without any addition to the score and the score read 614 for 6.

 

In the final session the Sri Lankan pair of Jayawardene and Vaas tried to go for some quick runs but their plans were thwarted by a much more disciplined bowling from the spinners. Both swung their bat around and then finally Prasanna Jayawardene was cleaned up by a quicker ball from Kaneria.

 

The Pakistani openers had to face a tricky period and both the opening bowlers troubled them with some accurate bowling. In the first over Khurram survived a very close run out chance and then in the fourth over Butt survived a caught behind appeal off Fernando. In the seventh over Khurram fatally did not offer a shot and got rapped on the pads but the umpire deemed that the ball had not swung enough and ruled in favour of the batsman. Finally in the twelfth over Mendis was introduced and on the first ball, Salman Butt goes for an extravagant drive outside the off stump, only for Dilshan to drop the catch. Muralitharan was introduced in the 17th over of the innings and both the batsmen looked to take their team to safely to stumps when Murali struck in the penultimate over of the day having Butt edge to Jayawardene at slips with the score on 44. Younis Khan decided to come out at the wicket rather than sending a nightwatchman in and both the batsmen survived till the end to take their team to stumps without much damage.

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