Honours even after hard-fought day two

Rex Clementine
in Galle

Gutsy batters and elegant ones, Pakistan are famous for producing both types. For grinding it out and winning games from hopeless positions, they once had Javed Miandad and Younis Khan after him. For style, they had Majid Khan and Mohammad Yousuf. It is still early days for young Saud Shakeel, but it looks like he belongs to the second category.

There were elegant drives, inside out shots and powerful sweeps as Shakeel together with Agha Salman dug Pakistan out of a tricky situation. It is only the left-handed Shakeel’s sixth Test match and he has already posted six fifties and one hundred and that’s sufficient proof that we will hear a lot more about him in time to come.

Pakistan were heading towards trouble with half their side back in the pavilion with just 101 runs on the board and Prabath Jayasuriya continuing his love affair in Galle. Of the left-arm spinner’s 53 Test victims, 49 have come here in Galle, the world’s most picturesque cricket venue. Instead of always choosing English venues to play the finals of the World Test Championship, ICC should also look at options like Galle.

Shakeel and Agha had added an unbroken 116-run stand to rescue their side and honours were even at the end of day two. The most impressive thing was how well they attacked Sri Lanka’s spin. Every loose ball was duly punished, and Pakistan were going at almost five runs an over and the pressure was back on Sri Lanka as maidens were few and rare – just two in 45 overs.

Sri Lanka’s think tank looked to be panicking with signs of the game drifting away from them. They just need one more breakthrough and even a 50-run lead would be handy in Galle. Pakistan currently trail by 91 runs.

Vice-captain Dhananjaya de Silva, who had saved his team from embarrassment rescuing them from 54 for four completed his tenth Test hundred, the third against Pakistan and third in Galle.There was a bit of resistance from the lower order with the last four wickets producing 70 runs on day two.

Not often does your number six get opportunities to post big runs, but Dhananjaya is earning a reputation for his ability to bat with the tail with six of his Test hundreds coming at number six. Where he bats is a crucial position and Sri Lankan batters like Hashan Tillekeratne and Thilan Samaraweera have done terrific jobs at number six over the years.

Rain played spoil sport again with only 75 of the 98 overs scheduled bowled. On day two too, 25 overs were lost due to rain and there’s lot of catching up to do but rain seems to be not going anywhere for the remainder of the game. But at the rate we have gone on the first two days, we should get a result.