Babar shows his class with seventh Test hundred

Pakistan captain Babar Azam is congratulated by Naseem Shah on reaching his seventh Test hundred

  Wicket-keeper Niroshan Dickwella catches Mohammad Rizwan off Ramesh Mendis (not in the picture)  

• First Test evenly poised after two days 

Pakistan captain Babar Azam is ranked number four in the ICC Test batsman’s ranking is not for nothing, but because he is a consistent performer at the highest level. Yesterday at the Galle International Cricket Stadium he

Prabath Jayasuriya continued his dream run with his third consecutive five-wicket haul

displayed his class scoring his seventh Test hundred when the rest of the batters had all failed, and single-handedly took Pakistan to within four runs of Sri Lanka’s first innings total of 222, which at the lunch break looked quite unlikely when they were 104-7.

Pakistan’s innings followed a similar course as that of Sri Lanka when the last two wickets added 89 runs. Yesterday in partnerships of 37, 26 and 70 with Yasir Shah (18), Hasan Ali (17) and Naseem Shah (5*), Babar lifted Pakistan to 218. 

The partnership that hurt Sri Lanka a lot was the one for the last wicket that consumed 185 balls for 70 runs between Babar and number 11 Naseem Shah who’s contribution was five not out off 52 balls. It erased the previous best at this venue for the tenth wicket of 63 by Dimuth Karunaratne and Lakshan Sandakan against South Africa in 2018.

By stumps Sri Lanka were 36-1, leading overall by 40 with nine second innings wickets in hand and three full days of play ahead.

The first session of the second day was all Sri Lanka’s as they rattled through the Pakistan top and middle order through spinners Prabath Jayasuriya and Ramesh Mendis. Resuming at 24-2, Pakistan lost five wickets for 80 in the session after a rain-delayed start. Jayasuriya looked unplayable as he went onto pick up his third five-wicket haul in as many innings.

It could have been worse for Pakistan had Sri Lanka not put down two chances given by Azhar Ali off the first ball of the day to Dimuth Karunaratne which eventually didn’t prove an expensive one as Azhar was out two balls later, and another by Oshada Fernando at short leg by Yasir Shah (12) off a full toss in the last ball before lunch.

Sri Lanka spilt another catch soon after the break when Maheesh Theekshana failed to hold onto a hard-hit return catch offered by Hasan Ali (1). These lapses proved to be costly as both Yasir and Hasan helped their captain in vital partnerships that helped Pakistan recover.

If the first session belonged to Sri Lanka, the second was totally dominated by Pakistan largely by Babar who batted through the entire afternoon extended by 30 minutes because the last pair was at the wicket. Babar initially shielded number eleven Naseem farming the strike but as the partnership gradually grew allowed him the freedom to defend himself which he did with perseverance scoring his first runs (a boundary) after 100 minutes at the wicket off the 39th ball.

Babar who went to tea with his personal score on 95 completed a chanceless hundred off 216 balls after the break with the help of 10 fours and a six on his first appearance in a Test in Sri Lanka. His exceptional innings came to an end seven overs after the tea break when Theekshana trapped him lbw for 119. The only time he looked like getting dismissed was when he survived a close lbw decision at 28 off Jayasuriya, otherwise batted with panache.  

How well Babar controlled the innings can be gauged by the fact that the next highest score after Babar’s hundred was 19 by Mohammad Rizwan.   

“What we saw today was Babar played exactly the same way Chandimal did on the first day, but Babar deserves a lot of credit to get Pakistan into a situation they are in. He did it brilliantly as Chandi did for us in the game against Australia,” said Sri Lanka head coach Chris Silverwood at the end of the day.

“The game is evenly poised, both teams have shown good signs but at the same time they will be frustrated. There have been good partnerships down the order for both teams. It’s high pressure as it was today. Babar managed that situation very well with the lower order batters and made it very difficult for us. It would have been easy for a team to be rolled over in that situation but they didn’t, and they made it really hard for us.”

“Every run tomorrow is gold dust. We know how this wicket will go. It will start turning more and more as the game goes on and every run, we can get from here is very important. For me it’s about playing smart, sensible cricket and finding ways of work for them on this wicket. We have to score as many as we can and put more daylight between us and them.” 

Pakistan batting coach Mohammad Yousuf said that he was speechless after watching Babar’s knock.   

“It couldn’t have been a better innings than this. To be under so much pressure and the ball turning a lot, he played with a lot of patience and took the tailenders along. I have never seen an innings like that after a long time. A knock with so much patience on a difficult track, especially the way he handled Jayasuriya.”