By Our Special Correspondent
Ramesh Mendis completed a five-wicket haul as Sri Lanka bowled Pakistan out for 231 to take a 147-run first-innings advantage on Tuesday before extending its lead to 323 when the third day of the second test ended early due to bad light. Sri Lanka was 176-5 in its second innings at stumps at Galle International Stadium. Although Pakistan bowlers picked up wickets at regular intervals, an unbroken 59-run partnership for the sixth wicket between Dimuth Karunaratne and Dhananjaya de Silva saw Sri Lanka’s lead pass 300 runs. De Silva dominated the partnership as he posted 30 not out off 52 deliveries with six fours. Niroshan Dickwella opened the batting in place of Karunaratne and was caught behind off Naseem Shah (2-29) when he chased a wide delivery without any feet movement. The spin trio of Yasir Shah, Mohammad Nawaz and Agha Salman picked up a wicket apiece to keep Pakistan interested as Sri Lanka lost four wickets between lunch and tea, going from 22-0 to 109-4. Naseem came back for a second spell later in the day to dismiss Dinesh Chandimal (21) in similar fashion to Dickwella. Sri Lanka was 117-5 and only had a lead of 264 at that point but the partnership between Karunaratne and de Silva gave the advantage to the hosts. (AP) Earlier, Pakistan resumed on 191-7 and added only 40 runs in the morning. Yasir Shah (26) and Hasan Ali (21) added 32 runs for the eighth wicket batting out the first hour of the morning. However, there was not much resistance from the rest of the tail as off-spinner Mendis accounted for the last two wickets to return 5-47 from 21.1 over’s, his third five-wicket haul in a test innings. The series is continuing despite economic and political turmoil in the island nation, which has led to severe shortages of essential items such as fuel, cooking gas and medicine. The second test was scheduled for Colombo but was shifted to the coastal town of Galle fearing trouble in the capital. (AP)
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