Sports

Sri Lanka recovered from the half-century innings of de Silva and Mathews

Dhananjaya de Silva (94 not out) and former captain Angelo Mathews (64) stitched a 131-run fifth-wicket partnership as Sri Lanka recovered from a shaky start to take six wickets at stumps on the opening day of the first Test against Pakistan here on Sunday. But scored 242 runs. Due to rain, only 65.4 overs could be played in the day. Sri Lanka were struggling at 54 for four at one stage but vice-captain D’Silva and Mathews used their experience to get the team out of a difficult situation. This partnership was broken by Abrar Ahmed (one wicket for 59 runs) by dismissing Mathews.

Mathews hit nine fours in his 109-ball innings. D’Silva then shared a 57-run partnership for the sixth wicket with wicketkeeper Sadeera Samarawickrama (36). Part-time bowler Agha Salman broke the partnership by dismissing Samarawickrama. With the fall of this wicket, the day’s play was called off due to bad light. De Silva is six runs away from his century. He has so far hit 10 fours and three sixes in his 157-ball innings. Earlier, fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi returned to Test cricket with three wickets as Pakistan rattled Sri Lanka’s top-order. Afridi and Naseem Shah, the two Pakistani fast bowlers, troubled the Sri Lankan batsmen from the start.

Afridi took his 100th wicket in Test cricket by getting opener Nishan Madhushanka (four) caught by wicketkeeper Sarfaraz Ahmed. He became the 19th bowler from Pakistan to reach this milestone. Afridi had missed the last one year due to a right knee injury and was stuck on 99 wickets in Test cricket. However, he ended this long wait in the third over itself. The game had not been played for even half an hour, due to the rain the players had to return to the pavilion. This prevented 87 minutes of play and lunch was pushed back by an hour. At the start of play, Afridi took his second wicket in the form of Kushal Mendis (12) who was caught in the slips. After this, he also showed Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne (29) the way to the pavilion. In the next over, Dinesh Chandimal (one) was caught in the slip off the bowling of Naseem Shah.

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