Lunch Sri Lanka 419 and 138 (Dickwella 37*, Yasir 5-51) lead Pakistan 422 by 135 runs
Pakistan took a meandering match by the collar, took six wickets on the final morning, and now stand only 136 runs from victory in the first Test – a turn of events nearly impossible to imagine as recently as two seconds ago.
Leading their remarkable resurgence, as ever in the UAE, was Yasir Shah, who had his legbreaks spitting out of the next district, on his way to figures of 5 for 51. Mohammad Abbas and Hasan Ali shared three wickets between them in the morning session, in which Sri Lanka mustered only 69 runs. So dominant were Pakistan’s bowling that they created eight fatal errors in total, but the two drops in the slips did not end up delaying their charge very long.
Before Yasir’s campaign began in earnest, Abbas was the man to claim what was perhaps the most important wicket of the day. Kusal Mendis has resisted good bowling attacks in the second innings in the past 14 months, but here, had his outside edge beaten by an Abbas away-seamer, before the next ball leapt back at him off the seam. It hit him just in line with the stumps, and though Mendis ventured a review, the decision would stand. He was out for 18.
more to follow…
Source: ESPN Crickinfo