Pakistan vs Sri Lanka: Match Reports

Day 1 and Day 2

The reason why I did not start on time was many fold. In short, let's just say a flight back home with a couple of stop overs can make you jet lagged enough to lose your bearings for a day. However, I don't think that the reader missed much as a very depleted Sri Lankan side came to Lahore to play a game that mattered only to Sri Lanka and India. With Jayasuria, Aravinda, Arajuna, Muralitharan and Vaas out of the side owing to injuries this Sri Lankan team under Tilikeratne looked very ordinary indeed. Pakistan on the other hand was without the services of speed merchant Shoaib Haider owing to a stiff neck. Ijaz and Malik were dropped from the sixteen and Waqar was not played in this game. Pakistan is well known in the technique of trial by fire. Another example in the shape of a seventeen-year-old from Gujranwala by the name of Imran Nazir was unveiled. Mohammed Waseem is in the sixteen too but since a one-down batsman was needed in place of Ijaz, Imran was played. Mohsin Hasan Khan says that this kid will go places. Fazl-e-Akbar and Shahid Nazir come in place of the bowlers and Inzamam returns from injury. Sri Lanka started many new faces in the side to replace their fallen stalwarts.

On a perfect batting pitch at the Gaddafi stadium Lahore, Pakistan won the toss and batted. The start was startling. A harm less natural leg cutter (for a rightie) from Wickramasinghe had Saeed prodding forward with a slight gap between bat and bad. His bails got relocated. Out walked the seventeen-year-old Imran and the trial by fire philosophy was under threat. On the other end, Wajahatullah Wasti looked solid and very correct. His timing and drives are really good. The only weakness so far is that he is suspect outside the off stick against the ball that moves away. As a kid every batsman is told that when playing as an opener the key is to have a short back lift and the bat should come down straight. Wasti tends to bring his bat down from around the gully direction. Apart from that he looks solid. Imran played well beyond his years with a very good back foot much like Ramesh of India. Both of them steadied the ship and rescued it. They played like veterans and took the score to 105 before Imran fell to an attempted hook to Wikeramasinghe. Inzamam walked in and in a typical lazy action played Wickeramasinghe on. It was quite funny how the veterans just threw their wickets away and the young ones played with poise. Yousuf Youhana walked out and was as solid as a rock. His concentration and confidence is great to watch. He is very wristy and takes things with patience. Intermittent rain stopped play for a while but the two youngsters took Pakistan to safe waters at 192/3 by the end of the day.

The second morning, Pakistan came out all guns blazing. Wasti hit great shots and Youhana started lifting the balls over the infield and soon Wasti was at 100. He got a century in his second test. His movement of the feet against spinners was perfect and timing immaculate. Yousuf was more aggressive in that he would hit over the top regularly. Yousuf played an innocent Jayawardne off-spinner back to him. Shahid Afridi walked in at the middle order position. The first ball he received, he danced down the wicket and slammed the off spinner to point/cover. The ball hit the silly fielder square in the chest and in the reflex action his hands came up. The ball stuck in the fielder's hands and an amazed Afridi walked back. Moin walked in with the aggressive Wasti on top. Wasti lost his wicket to a needless run out and missed out on a huge total. Saqlain, Wasim and Shahid Nazir left early. Moin blasted his sixes all over the field and soon completed his 50. Wickramasinghe got him with a full toss and finished with 6/103.

Sri Lanka replied to Pakistan's 398 with a bang. Arnold and Gunawardene blazed away at the new ball. They were especially harsh on Fazl-e-Akbar but he got his revenge after a series of failures. He got Gunawardne caught by fine leg off an attempted hook. That opened the door to Saqlain and he got three quick wickets to balance this game even further. He got Jayawardne off a splendid straighter one, Attapattu popped one to silly and then the captain Tillekaratne played for spin that was not there to lose his off stump. Saqlain bowled really well on a batting track with the rest of the day played out by a ruthless Arnold who looks very good at 81. Sri Lanka earned four points in the Pakistan innings, and need to score 226 in 100 overs to equal India on points, and 282 in 100 overs to pass them on run rate and qualify for the final. Sri Lanka will most probably qualify for the finals but that will take away from an interesting Pakistan India battle at Dhaka. A depleted Sri Lanka will probably not be matched up well with Pakistan. This particular test looks destined for a draw on this batting track. Not much to look forward to than a lot of runs in Lahore in the next few days. Some one will have to bat really badly to decide this test.


Day 3


The day began with Sri Lanka looking for 293 runs to cement a place in the finals. Arnold and Kaluwitharna made sure they did that. They batted with assurance and Arnold impressed. He bats with the utmost ease of a left hander. He has an array of shots with the front foot cover drive being his best. Kalu was his usual aggressive self. Pakistan started with Afridi and Fazl-e-Akbar. Some people said that Saqlain and Wasim were under the weather but I thought they looked uninterested in the proceedings. In any case, this Sri Lankan pair played well and smashed the ball all over the field on a batting paradise at Lahore. Saqlain was finally brought on but Kalu welcomed him with three fours through the cover region. On the other end, Arnold continued fluently to achieve his first century. He looks like a very good prospect for Lanka. Sri Lanka soon achieved 293 and made it to the final without much fuss.


After playing a great knock, Arnold inexplicably preplanned a sweep off a saqlain full toss on the leg stump. He dragged his foot outside the off and missed a Saqlain ball on the leg stump after making 123. Hathurisinghe walked in and was immediately trapped in front by Afridi. Wasim came back into the attack and it seemed as if he had had enough after Lanka made it to the final. He came on to get Kalu caught behind off a beauty that left him late. Kalu however had got a well-deserved century and looked every bit the belligerent stroke player that he has been advertised to be for a long time. The very next ball came back after pitching outside leg and uprooted the leg stump of Bandaratilake round his legs. The crowd greeted the next ball with a roar as Wickramasinghe was late on an inswinger to the rightie. The off stump was pushed back and the great one had achieved a hat tick in a test match to go with the one day one. Sanjiva De Silva lost his stumps soon after and within minutes Wasim had cleaned up the Lankan innings at 328. The Pakistan lead was 70 runs. The great fast bowler has another feather on his cap. The beat goes on. His engine chugs along. He has many more years and a pedestal waiting for him. The portion of the ladder that is left is very short and quite easy. The key is not to look down and judging by the elation on his face Wasim Akram is loving it too much to slip just yet. The whole team of young cricketers hugging their captain in absolute awe and excitement after the feat told the story. Well done skipper.


A little while later out walked Shahid with Wasti. Saeed was probably under the weather as he needed practice on this batting track and there was no other reason not to send him. The Lankans dropped four catches of Afridi. Easy ones too. Now Shahid is a handful when he is not given a chance but four easy ones and he thought it was his day. I am not sure if there is anything scarier than an over confident stroke player thinking that it is his day and nothing can touch him. He launched into an assault that made me feel sorry for the Lankans. He hammered the ball all over the field. One weakness was obvious though and that was his inability to avoid a short ball. He hooked every time and popped a few up. Wasti on the other hand looked like a veteran with his precise placement and exquisite timing. He has a great chance to get a hundred in both the innings. When play ended they were both together with Pakistan at 149. Another batting feast awaits tomorrow. For Lanka's sake I hope they do not drop any more catches that Afridi offers. Miandad probably sat him down tonight and told him that he could play the whole day tomorrow, as Pakistan will probably not declare till late tomorrow. Now that is frightening.


Day 4 and Day 5


Rain delayed play for a while. The sky was overcast when play started and Shahid left early to a delivery by Sanjiva that left him outside the off. With his two feet planted in the ground Shahid fished outside the off for Kalu to take an easy catch. Inzamam walked in and started as if he had been in for a while. After smacking a ball for four he tried a pull to a ball that was not that short and did not get up. Plump LBW. Inzi should have tried to play himself in and gauge the response of the wicket before launching into an assault. He paid for his indiscretion dearly and missed out on getting some runs on a batting strip. Saeed walked in after that and started to play cautiously along with Wasti. Saeed however soon started to look fluent. He was all set for a big total when he got run out for 45 with the score at 226. Wasti is a good batsman. His technique is sound and he is intelligent in his shot selection. His strengths are his free flowing off and on drives. His weakness mirrors the weakness of all Pakistani front line batsmen and that is the tendency to play outside the off without moving their feet especially the back foot. While looking for quick runs the Pakistanis threw away their wickets, Wasti was content on picking the loose ball and take advantage of it. He got his second successive century and joined Hanif and Miandad in being the only Pakistanis to have that distinction. Imran Nazir and Yousuf Youhana left cheaply. Wasim came in and hit two big sixes before departing for 17. Moin and Saqlain followed soon and Pakistan declared at 314 for 8 with Wasti unbeaten on 121. Sri Lanka started boldly in their chase for 385. Arnold and Gunawardne took the score to 60 by the end of the fourth day.


The pre-lunch play on the last day was lost to rain. With the match pretty much a draw, the Sri Lankans opted for batting practice when play finally started. Arnold was solid like the first innings. He looks like a great prospect for Lanka along with Jayawardne. Both play with a very straight bat and have all the shots in the book. Gunawardne and Jayawardne were the only ones out as the match fizzled out in a draw while rain took over. Jayawardne got his 50 and Arnold remained unbeaten with another good innings of 65. The end was just like the match. Boring. Wasti got the man of the match deservedly. The logic of making a perfect batting track, when a green wicket was not a problem at this time of the year at Gaddafi, is beyond me. This was a lost opportunity for Pakistan to win a test, which is almost criminal with 6 of Lanka's top players out. A test match is a test match and so one should try and win at all costs. I am not sure if Pakistan deserves any reprimand for maximizing their chances to win the final but they are guilty of not taking interest in this test match.


The final at Dhaka is not on my priority list in terms of interest as I feel that Dhaka will be a batting track gauging from what happened in the one day tournament there some months ago. A world record one-day chase wicket is not an ideal test match wicket. If Dhaka is indeed a batting wicket the first innings will decide the champion and that will be a shame because after the first inning is over, one team will play for a draw. Pakistan will probably have Shoaib and Ijaz back for the final. Shahid Nazir and Fazle Akbar will lose their place as will Imran Nazir. I would pick Waqar as the third replacement to make a formidable bowling line up of Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib, Saqlain and Afridi. The batting will be good with Wasti, Saeed, Ijaz, Inzi, Yousuf, Shahid, Moin and Wasim. If Lanka does get a couple of their players back as advertised then they will be a better match for Pakistan but I don't see how their bowling can be improved. A batting track will suit Lanka though this time Pakistan might be a little more serious about the game.