Naseem Shah’s maiden 5-wicket haul allowed Pakistan to secure the game in just 3 overs on Day 5:
Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka in a historic Test match at National Stadium Karachi. The home side won the game by a huge margin of 263 runs as Pakistan’s first home Test series came to an end. It took barely 3 overs on Day 5 of the 2nd Test for the hosts to secure the 3 wickets which were keeping them away from a series victory against Sri Lanka by 1-0.
Historic victory for this man and his team ?#PAKvSL pic.twitter.com/VpxIkAkvpJ
— ICC (@ICC) December 23, 2019
In the first innings of the 2nd Test, Pakistan opted to bat first but the entire team collapsed on just 191 runs. Babar Azam scored 60 runs for 96 balls, while Asad Shafiq contributed 63 runs for 126 balls. Sri Lanka’s Lahiru Kumara and Lasith Embuldeniya both claimed 4 wickets each for their team.
Sri Lanka would have suffered the same fate as the home side in their first innings but Dinesh Chandimal and Diruwan Perera’s gutsy batting brought Sri Lanka on 271 runs with a lead of 80 runs. Dinesh Chandimal scored 74 runs from 143 deliveries and Dilruwan Perera added 48 runs from 84 balls.
Mohammad Abbas and Shaheen Shah Afridi led the bowling attack for their team. Mohammad Abbas claimed 4 wickets for 55 runs in 27 overs, while Shaheen Shah Afridi claimed his maiden 5-for in National Stadium Karachi.
In Pakistan’s second innings, the same team that lost all their wickets on 191 runs amassed a mammoth total of 555/3 in their second innings. Pakistani openers Shan Masood and Abid Ali took a stand of a whooping 278 runs, the second-highest in Pakistan’s history of cricket.
Shan Masood scored his 2nd Test hundred and finished his inning on 135 runs from 198 deliveries. Abid Ali, the star of the game, scored his second consecutive century in the 2nd Test match of his career. He scored 174 runs from 281 balls before getting lbw by Lahiru Kumara.
Pakistan’s skipper Azhar Ali celebrated his 16th Test hundred, his 1st in the past 12 months, and finished his innings on 118 runs for 156 balls. Babar Azam, Pakistan’s best batsman, also scored his 4th Test hundred and 2nd consecutive one after his unbeaten 102 against Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi Test.
Thus, all top 4 batsmen scored single hundreds and it was only the second time in all history that such an event took place. The first time was when India faced Bangladesh in 2007 and the top 4 batsmen of India scored hundreds.
After Babar’s ton, Azhar Ali declared the innings on 555/3 and Sri Lanka had to chase 476 runs to win the match and secure the series.
Sri Lanka struggled from the start after they lost 5 of their wickets for just 97 runs. The match looked way out of their reach at this point but opener Oshada Fernando shared a 104 runs partnership with wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella to take Sri Lanka across 200.
Oshada Fernando scored his maiden Test hundred and lost his wicket after scoring 102 runs for 180 balls. Niroshan Dickwella celebrated his 14th Test half-century and finished his innings on 65 runs.
After losing both of them, the visitors lost the remaining wickets by 212 runs and lost the 2nd Test by 263 runs. Naseem Shah claimed his first 5-for in his 3rd Test match.
Abid Ali named “Player of the Series” as Pakistan secures the Test series against Sri Lanka by 1-0:
Abid Ali was named the “Player of the Match” in both Tests and also the “Player of the Series” for his 321 runs in 3 innings with an average of 160.5. He fully utilized the chance he received after waiting for so many years and first-class matches. He has now proved to everyone that he is, without a doubt, a very talented player. We only hope that he keeps up his performance in the matches to come.
