Abdullah Shafique acknowledges his second Test 100 

• Pakistan requires 120 for victory with seven wickets intact

Opener Abdullah Shafique led Pakistan’s run chase for a historic win with an unbeaten century in the first cricket Test against Sri Lanka played at the Galle International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

Shafique who crafted his innings handsomely was unbeaten on 112 scored off 289 balls (five fours, one six) as Pakistan chasing a record target of 342 ended the fourth day on 222-3, requiring a further 120 runs with seven wickets in hand going into the fifth and final day today. 

It could be six depending on whether Shaheen Afridi can bat after having gone a scan on his knee which he hurt whilst fielding in the deep on the third day.  

For long periods of the game, it seemed that Pakistan were in control and were comfortably heading towards victory when Shafique in liaison with his captain Babar Azam put together a partnership of 101 off 238 balls. But just when Pakistan looked to finish the day on top Babar who had gone past 3000 Test runs lost his wicket when he was bowled around his legs padding at a delivery from Prabath Jayasuriya that turned from the rough outside leg to hit his stumps. 

Babar had displayed the same composure he had in the first innings scoring a valuable century, and his dismissal for 55 off 104 balls (four fours, one six) has opened up the game for a tight finish today. With Mohammad Rizwan at the wicket with Shafique, Pakistan will fancy their chances at the start of play today. But a wicket or two in the first session could expose their inexperienced middle order against Sri Lanka’s three-pronged spin attack.

Chandimal unbeaten 94

Before Babar’s dismissal Pakistan had control of the match taking the final Sri Lanka wicket quickly within four overs as they added only eight runs to their overnight total of 329-9 leaving Dinesh Chandimal six runs shy of his 14th Test century on 94 scored off 139 balls (5 fours, 2 sixes).

The Pakistani openers then rode their luck and stitched together an opening stand of 87 off 173 balls before Imam-ul-Haq was dismissed in peculiar fashion for 35 when he lifted his backfoot a fraction and inches off the ground and Niroshan Dickwella who has so far not had a good game brought off a smart stumping. Sri Lanka came back into the game albeit briefly when they followed that dismissal with that of Azhar Ali who edge a catch to slip to five Prabath Jayasuriya his first wicket of the innings.

Spinning pitch turns flat 

Strangely, the pitch did not respond to spin as it had on the first three days and the Lankan spinners could not produce the same success as they had on the second day having to toil hard for success.

“I don’t know the reason but all of a sudden, the wicket went flat. Nothing was happening when we were bowling,” said Sri Lanka’s spin bowling coach Piyal Wijetunge at the end of the day. 

“When we were batting, the wicket was spinning and so many things were happening. But still, we kept them under three runs per over and we’re still in the game. If we grab two wickets in the morning, we have a great chance of winning.”

“Considering the state of the wicket, we wanted to stop the boundaries. Even when we bowled loose deliveries, we wanted to stop the boundaries and keep them down to only singles. One thing we have to consider here is that we have bowled 85 overs for 222 runs. The run rate is 2.6. It’s a good performance by our bowlers. Still there are 120 runs to get and the first hour of tomorrow is very important. If we can get two wickets in the morning, we have a big opportunity to win this game.”

Shafique conquers Jayasuriya

Centurion Shafique said that Pakistan had just one plan in mind and that was to go after Prabath Jayasuriya.

“He has done well in the first innings and if we figure him out well here, then we have a pretty good chance of batting well against them. I did create some scoring options against him at times. We have to go off strike when he is bowling. Rotate the strike and give ourselves a good chance in the middle. The fourth innings in Galle is not easy to bat on. You have to take on challenges and you have to play spin quite well and tackle the spinners in different ways.”

“The main plan was to go after the chase but build strategies along the way. We have to break up the bigger goal into shorter ones and we tried to play in the present and deal with the bowler in question, not just think about 300 and beyond which looks tough. So, we broke it into parts and that made it easy for us. This hundred is a special one and hopefully I can win it for the team,” said Shafique.

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