Peshawar, March 7: Pakistan rallied back in to the match through theirbowlers after some spineless batting resulted in the loss of theirlast seven wickets for 45 runs on an eventful third day of the secondcricket Test against Sri Lanka at the
Samiul Hasan08-Mar-2000Pakistan’s bowlers make up for batting failurePeshawar, March 7: Pakistan rallied back in to the match through theirbowlers after some spineless batting resulted in the loss of theirlast seven wickets for 45 runs on an eventful third day of the secondcricket Test against Sri Lanka at the Arbab Niaz Stadium here onTuesday.Pakistan’s middle and lower order batting collapsed so abysmally thata promising score of 154 for three just after lunch became 199 all outin reply to Sri Lanka’s first innings 268.The fall of 14 wickets during the day’s play has made this Test evenlypoised.Waqar Younis took two for 22 and received excellent support fromShoaib Akhtar, Arshad Khan and Aamir Sohail, who picked up one wicketapiece, as the tourists finished the day at 129 for five.Sri Lanka have a cushion of 198 runs lead going into the penultimateday but Pakistan can feel satisfied with their performance in thepost-tea session in which they dismissed the five frontlinebatsmen. They just need to break the partnership between Russel Arnoldand Aravinda de Silva which will expose the lower-middle-order and anopportunity to fold the innings earlier than many would have expectedwhen Sri Lanka started their innings after an early tea.But some horrendous and reckless stroke selection by the Pakistanibatsmen nearly put the crucial match beyond their reach when they werebowled out for 199 after being 153 for three at lunch. The saddestpart is that none of the batsmen could blame either the pitch orbowling for their downfall.Saeed Anwar, who top scored with 74, laid the foundation when heshowed a rush of blood against Sanath Jayasuriya to be caught byMuttiah Muralitharan at mid-on. Two balls earlier, Saeed had hit hiscounterpart for a huge six. That shot that brought his dismissal wastotally uncalled for from someone as experienced as Saeed who is alsothe captain of the team and is supposed to lead by example.Yousuf Youhana chased an outgoing delivery to be caught by RomeshKaluwitharana. And Shahid Afridi disappointed his fans with yetanother display of immaturity and impatience to hit right into thehands of Russel Arnold at cover at a time when Pakistan had just lostYounis Khan because of an error of judgement by English umpire JohnHampshire.Younis was declared caught bat and pad after Muralitharan and close-infielders had appealed for a leg before.That decision was the turning point of the day’s play as it changedthe complexion of the game. Inzamam-ul-Haq, who was batting withYounis at that time, helplessly saw wickets fall from the other enduntil Pakistan were dismissed 29 minutes before tea.But Inzamam continued his love affair with this ground by stroking hisfourth half century in his five visits.Inzamam, who reached 90s against Sri Lanka, West Indies and Australiahere in the last five years, batted brilliantly for his 58 thatspanned over 214 minutes. He faced 163 balls and struck sevenboundaries and a sweetly time six off Pramodya Wickremasinghe off histoes.Inzamam needed the luck he required when Tillekeratne Dilshan droppeda regulation catch at cover when the strongly-built batsman was twoand Pakistan 89 for two.The later order batsmen – Abdur Razzaq, Waqar Younis and Arshad Khan -tried to use their pads more than the bat and paid the price when allof them fell to Muralitharan who finished as picked of the Sri Lankanbowlers with four for 77, including three in nine deliveries.Saeed Anwar’s irresponsible shot though took a gloss of a fineinnings, it doesn’t truly reflect the amount of hard work theleft-hander did to graft his innings. He received 191 balls in hisfour hours of batting. He clobbered nine boundaries and a six.When the stumps were drawn three over before schedule because offading light on a day which saw 14 wickets falling, Sri Lanka’s lastrecognized pair of Russel Arnold and Aravinda de Silva were at thecrease.Arnold was looking confident and as solid as a rock while scoring63. He has been batting for eight minutes over three hours duringwhich he has faced 116 balls and belted 10 excellent boundaries mostlyon the on-side.De Silva, who could only come into bat at No 7 after spending the dayin the dressing room because of a twisted ankle, was seven not out.After Waqar Younis provided Pakistan the much needed earlybreakthrough by trapping Sanath Jayasuriya in front of the wickets, hereturned for his second spell and picked up Mahela Jayawardena in asimilar fashion.Jayawardena’s dismissal saw Sri Lanka lose Tillekeratne Dilshan andRomesh Kaluwitharana in a space of five balls.Arshad Khan, who bowled too many lose deliveries, was rewarded withthe prized scalp of last innings top scorer Marvan Atapattu (29).Aamir Sohail, who had given Saeed Anwar vital breakthroughs, didn’tdisappoint his opening partner by having Dilshan caught smartly bydebutant Atiq-uz-Zaman behind the wickets.