Saeed Ajmal waves his magic wand of spinning and turned the face of match by grabbing instant wickets as Pakistan ended Sri Lanka’s resolute batting to punch back in the final Test on Tuesday .
After fifties by Tharanga Paranavitana (75) and Thilan Samaeaweera(73) made possible for srilanka to reach 220/6 at tea. Only six runs Srilanka required to win the match as Pakistan’s first innings score of 226 all out.
The two commanding batsmen hover upon the stadium and took SriLanka’s charge with fourth-wicket stand of 143 after surviving a testing morning session in overcast and their for sure winning chances were on its peak.
But Pakistan made a violent comeback into the match after off-spinner Saeed Ajmal sent both the batmen to the pavilion during lunch session .
Sri Lanka put on 143 run stand before Samaraweera was depleted by Ajmal for a well-made 73. Pakistan had to wrench the shape of match and break the partnership as both batsmen looked forward to complete their full centuries which would have helped SriLanka take decisive first innings lead .At this high time Ajmal shrugged off Paranavitana for 75 to give a chance of wrapping the blue shirts innings under 300.
The pair came together when Mahela Jayawardene fell off the last ball of the first day’s play to leave Sri Lanka toppled over at 44-3 at stumps.
The proceedings on Day 3 started after the entire Day 2 of the 3rd Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka was washed out due to heavy .
The stand was broken midway through the afternoon session when Samaraweera played back to Ajmal and was out leg-before.
New man Angelo Mathews began with a promising on-drive off Mohammad Sami for four, but fell for nine when he sliced left-arm seamer Junaid Khan to Asad Shafiq at gully.
Paranavita’s five-hour vigil ended soon after, bowled by Ajmal to make Sri Lanka 204-6, still 23 runs away from gaining the lead.
Pakistan strongly felt the absence of wicket-keeper Adnan Akmal ,who cannot played because of hairline fracture in his left hand sustained while batting on the opening day .
Sri Lanka won the first Test in Galle by 209 runs .
Sri Lanka give 337 target to Pakistan in 3RD day of test match in Pallekele International Stadium.
Pakistan fell his first wicket on 16 runs. Toufeeq Umar is lbw out by Kulasekara.
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