Cricket Highlights, 18 July: SL vs PAK (1st Test – Day 3)

SL vs PAK (1st Test – Day 3)

At the end of the third day, hosts Sri Lanka are in the driver’s seat in the Galle Test. Batting in the second innings, the Lankans ended the 3rd day’s play with 329 runs for 9 wickets. As a result, their lead stands at 333 runs. Dinesh Chandimal on 86 and Prabath Jayasuriya remain unbeaten on 4 runs.

The man in form, Chandimal has been on fire with the bat after Oshada Fernando and Kusal Mendis scored two great half-centuries. Chandimal scored a double century in the Galle Test against Australia and followed up with a half-century in the first innings against Pakistan. He is on the way to a century in the second innings as well. Left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya, who came in as the last batsman, is also there on the wicket with him.

The hosts ended the 2nd day with 36 runs for 1 wicket. Opener Oshada started the third day’s play unbeaten on 17 and Kasun Rajitha on 3 runs. Before the lunch break, spinner Mohammad Nawaz sent off Rajitha (7), who had come down as a night watchman on the previous day.

But it got worse for the visitors in the second session as Kusal and Oshada put together a fantastic partnership of 91 runs for the 3rd wicket. However, after the lunch break, Yasir Shah sent back Oshada to the pavilion, who scored the 6th fifty of his Test career. His innings of 64 runs included 6 fours and a six.

However, after Oshada’s departure, the Lankans did not see any other big pair. Nawaz sent Angelo Mathews back to the dressing room for 9 runs. After a while, Kusal who scored 76 runs returned to the pavilion after being bowled by Yasir’s delivery. Sri Lanka scored 125 runs at an average of 4.4 per over against the loss of 5 wickets in the second session. Where Chandimal built a wall of resistance at one end.

Chandimal struggled with the lower-order batsmen in the third session. After the partnership of 40 runs with Dhananjaya de Silva got broken, Chandimal passed the day with a partnership of 32 runs with Ramesh Mendis, 41 with Maheesh Theekshana, and an unbroken partnership of 21 runs with Prabath Jayasuriya. Where Dhananjaya 20, Ramesh 22, Niroshan Dickwella 12, and Theekshana got out with 11 runs.

17 runs came from the bat of Chandimal in the partnership with Jayasuriya who came in the eleventh. That is, the Lankan middle-order batsman, Chandimal took the responsibility of scoring runs alongside batting with the Lankan spinner. This batsman scored 86 runs off 121 balls with 2 sixes and 5 fours.

The 32-year-old former captain has been in great form recently. His scores in the last seven Test innings—66, 39*, 124, 0, 13, 206*, 76, 86*.

Pakistan’s left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz, who came down to play the fourth Test of his career, took 5 wickets in an innings for the first time in international cricket. He scalped 5 wickets for 88 runs. Another spinner Yasir Shah took 3 wickets for 122 runs. Besides, Hasan Ali and Naseem Shah took 1 wicket each.

However, due to Chandimal’s stand, Pakistan has moved away from the possibility of winning this Test easily. There is a record of winning by chasing the maximum 268 runs in Galle. The highest score of any team in the fourth innings is 300 runs. Even today spinners might get enough turn and bounce. So naturally, the 4th-day wickets are expected to be tougher.

SL vs PAK Scoreboard

Sri Lanka (1^st Innings) – 222/10 (66.1)

Pakistan (1^st Innings) – 218/10 (90.5)

Sri Lanka (2^nd Innings) – 329/9 (96.0)

SL vs PAK Playing XIs