Pakistan 1-46 (Ahmed Shehzad 25*, Khurram Manzoor 21) trails Sri Lanka 204 (Angelo Mathews 91, Dimuth Karunaratne 38, Junaid Khan 5-58, Bilawal Bhatti 3-65, Saeed Ajmal 2-32) by 158 runs with nine wickets in hand.
The strong looking batting line up of the Lankan Lions continued their dismal performance against the Pakistani quickies in the first Test at Abu Dhabi.
The Islanders were bowled out for 204 runs after 65 overs in their first innings and the hosts scored 46 for the loss of one wicket in 18.1 overs.
The first Test of the three match series commenced on Tuesday, December 31, 2013, at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi.
Earlier, the skipper of Pakistan, Misbah-ul-Haq, won the toss and invited Sri Lanka to bat first. Dimuth Karunaratne along with Kaushal Silva took off smartly by scoring 43 runs in 10 overs with 7 fours. The latter survived a review in the 16th over whereas Karunaratne became the first victim of Junaid Khan at 57 after contributing 38. Silva followed him after 10 runs for 20 and the next two wickets fell at 76 in 28.4 overs.
The captain of the Islanders, Angelo Mathews, tried to consolidate the innings but the wickets kept on sliding at the other end regularly. He decided to attack and attained his 12th Test fifty on the 49th ball comprising eight well timed fours. The pace attack of the home side kept on penetrating through the batting of the rival team and the visitors were reeling at 8-124 in 39.3 overs. Mathews was the last batsman who was dismissed for 91 as the entire innings of the Lankan Lions was folded back for 204 runs.
Junaid Khan was the star performer with five wickets, the debutant Bilawal Bhatti held three whereas Saeed Ajmal chipped in with two wickets.
Khurram Manzoor along and Ahmed Shehzad opened the innings for the hosts in a positive manner by posting 41 runs on board in 14 overs. The first was run out at 46 for 21 as the umpires decided it to call off the day’s play after his departure and Ahmed Shehzad was unbeaten for 25.
Pakistan has performed excellently on the opening day of the first Test and it will depend on their batsmen to put them on top in the game.
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