Positive and Negatives for Pakistan from Pakistan-Srilanka series- Part II

Second Test:

Having achieved a controversial draw from the face of a win, Pakistan went into the second test with left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman in place of fast bowler, Aizaz Cheema. Srilanka, on the other hand, included fast bowler Dhamika Prasad, in place of fellow
pacer, Nuwan Pradeep.

Pakistan lost the second successive toss and were put in the field once again by the Srilankan captain, Tillikaratne Dilshan. The decision looked a perfect one under the sunny conditions at Dubai with Srilanka hoping, not to crumble again as they did in
the first test.

The home side, though, once again had the visitors in trouble with Umar Gul providing a perfect start. It were the fast bowlers standing tall in the heat of desert and did their best in order to leave Srilanka reeling at 73/5.

The first positive fact was the effort put in by the two front-line seamers as they bowled their heart out to mark Srilanka’s downfall.

What Pakistan couldn’t do well apart from the first innings of the first test was to bob down the experienced Kumar Sangakkara. The left hander continued playing at a decent pace in spite of witnessing the wickets falling around him.

It was Sangakkara’s own mistake causing his downfall as he came down the track to loft Abdur Rehman into the stands. In doing so, the lefty was caught at long on, much to the delight of Pakistan team.

Having limited the visitors to 154/8, the Green Shirts weren’t able to fold the innings early as the two tail-enders, Rangana Herath and Welegedara shared a ninth-wicket stand of 75 runs.

These were a couple of weak point from the first innings and Pakistan need to work hard on finishing the innings once they have got rid of the top order.

Azhar Ali’s maiden ton was another positive from the team’s point of view as they have now found a genuine number three after the departure of players like Muhammad Yousuf and Inzimam-ul-Haq.

Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal became the highest wicket taker in tests this year after grabbing yet another five-wicket haul in Srilanka’s second innings. Another huge positive from the team and country’s point of view.

Needing to win 94 runs to go one-up in the three-match test series, Pakistan and especially opener, Mohammad Hafeez, made a meal of their target and finished the game on the fourth day. Hafeez played fluently for his 59 not-out runs of just the 64 balls,
signalling the fact that Pakistan could also play quickly if the situation demands.

Overall, Pakistan made a few blemishes in this test and apart from their inability to fold the innings quickly, there were no major worries for Mohsin Khan’s men.

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Posted by Taha Habib on Nov 24 2011. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry