Pakistan vs Sri Lanka 1st Test drawn as Saud Shakeel falls for 97
Shakeel's 97 after his first-innings 93 saved Pakistan on the last day in Rawalpindi. Saqib Khan was player of the match; the second Test starts 17 November.
Update: the first Test is over. When we last wrote, after day 3, Sri Lanka were 404-4 and threatening a big lead. On Friday, 13 November, the match in Rawalpindi ended in a draw, and Saud Shakeel was the reason Pakistan never had to worry about losing it.
Shakeel made 97 in the second innings, three short of a century, after falling for 93 in the first. The PCB said Pakistan finished on 284-8, a lead of 272, before the captains shook hands early in the final session.
How did Pakistan save the Rawalpindi Test?
Pakistan began the last day on 57-1, only 45 ahead, and the morning went badly. Azan Awais was out for 22 to Lahiru Kumara with the first ball of the day, and Mohammad Taha was caught behind off Asitha Fernando for 24, Dawn reported.
Captain Babar Azam added 50 with Shakeel before he fell for 34, caught in a leg-side trap off Milan Rathnayake. Kamindu Mendis had dropped him on 22. Salman Ali Agha went the same way for 13, and at 125-5 Sri Lanka had a real chance.
Shakeel shut that door. He added 92 for the sixth wicket with Ghazi Ghori, who made 35 off 69 balls, and then 44 with Arafat Minhas (16), according to The Nation. His 97 came off 210 balls with seven fours before Kumara bowled him, shortly before the finish.
Rathnayake took 3-47, Fernando 2-35 and Kumara 2-65.
Saud Shakeel misses a hundred twice in one Test
The two near-misses make Shakeel Pakistan’s top scorer of the match with 190 runs. Daily Pakistan noted that the second hundred would have been the fifth Test century of his career. Patient batting like this is what Pakistan’s young side, with four debutants in this match, leaned on all week.
Saqib Khan’s debut: player of the match
The award went to Saqib Khan, the debutant fast bowler, for his 7-130 in Sri Lanka’s first innings, the PCB said. Sri Lanka had been 404-6 on day 4 before losing their last six wickets for 42 to finish on 446, a lead of only 12 over Pakistan’s 434-9 declared. Dhananjaya de Silva (167) and Kusal Mendis (119) made the centuries.
Bad light played its part all match. Dawn reported that 117 of the 360 scheduled overs were lost, with the final sessions of the first four days cut short.
What the captains said
Babar said that “everyone was expecting the pitch to be difficult” and praised his openers and the de Silva-Mendis partnership, Dawn reported. Mendis said Sri Lanka did not do well in the first session after winning a good toss, but that he was happy overall.
Pakistan vs Sri Lanka 2nd Test: when and where
The series is level at 0-0. The second Test is also in Rawalpindi, from Tuesday, 17 November to Saturday, 21 November. The PCB moved it there from Lahore because of the smog, so fans who bought Gaddafi Stadium tickets will be watching the decider at the same ground as this one.
