Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by four wickets, kick starting ICC World Test Championship on a winning note
Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by four wickets in the first test of the 2-matches series in Galle on Thursday, kick-starting the ICC World Test Championship on a winning note!
1️⃣-0️⃣ 🆙
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) July 20, 2023
Pakistan begin their ICC World Test Championship 2023-25 campaign with a 4️⃣-wicket win against Sri Lanka 🙌#SLvPAK pic.twitter.com/4e1fTNh3BS
Babar Azam-led Pakistan team resumed their second innings on Thursday, day-5 of the match at the overnight score of 48 for three with 83 runs required to win.
Babar Azam hit two boundaries in the first over of the morning to make his intentions clear. He went on to score two more boundaries before getting adjudged leg-before wicket to Prabath Jayasuriya for 24 off 28 balls.
At 79-4, Saud Shakeel joined the opening batter Imam-ul-Haq and the pair put in a 43-run partnership for the fifth wicket before Saud (30, 38b, 6x4s) fell to Ramesh Mendis in the 30th over of the innings.
With five runs to win, Pakistan lost Sarfaraz Ahmed’s wicket (1, 10b).
Salman Ali Agha came to the crease and finished the match in style by hitting a huge six off the first ball he faced, helping the team beat the hosts by four wickets.
Imam went unbeaten on 50 off 84 balls, including four fours and one six.
For Sri Lanka, Jayasuriya bagged four wickets in the second innings and ended up taking seven wickets in the first test match.
Scores in brief (day 5 of 5)
Sri Lanka 312 all out, 95.2 overs
(Dhananjaya de Silva 122, Angelo Mathews 64, Sadeera Samarawickrama 36, Dimuth Karunaratne 29; Abrar Ahmed 3-68, Shaheen Shah Afridi 3-86, Naseem Shah 3-90, Salman Ali Agha 1-18) and 279 all out,
83.1 overs (Dhananjaya de Silva 82, Nishan Madushka 52, Ramesh Mendis 42, Dinesh Chandimal 28; Noman Ali 3-75, Abrar Ahmed 3-68, Salman Ali Agha 2-39, Shaheen Shah Afridi 2-64)
Pakistan 461 all out, 121.2 overs
(Saud Shakeel 208 not out, Salman Ali Agha 83, Shan Masood 39, Noman Ali 25; Ramesh Mendis 5-136, Prabath Jayasuriya 3-145) and 133-6, 32.5 overs
(Imam-ul-Haq 50 not out, Saud Shakeel 30, Babar Azam 24; Prabath Jayasuriya 4-56)
Saud Shakeel (Pakistan) was awarded Player of the Match
