SL struggling after bright start

ISLAMABAD: A purple patch at the post-lunch session that saw pacers taking four wickets in a heap made it a Pakistan day as Sri Lanka slowly seen losing the grip on the opening day of first Test at the Pindi Stadium Wednesday.There could not have been an entertaining restart of Test engagements in Pakistan in a decade time then what was on offer on a light restricted opening day. Sri Lanka stated off formidably with host coming roaring back to reduce tourists to 202 for 5 in 68.1 possible overs at the close.The tourists’ decision to bat first were fast proving right when they reached 89 for no loss at lunch with skipper FDM Karunaratne (59) and BOP Fernando (40) going well. While Sri Lanka skipper looked aggressive and was seen bearing the brunt of all the scoring, Fernando took 12 overs to get off the mark. It was after the lunch interval that real action started with Pakistan young pair of Shaeen Shah Afridi (1-37) and Naseem Shah (2-51) seen extracting a bit more bounce and movement. Shaheen’s talent was soon was on display when he defeated Karunaratne defense with a yorker length delivery and even umpires review backed and supported left-arm seamer’s lbw case.Within next 15 over Pakistan picked three more wickets to reduce Sri Lanka from 96 for no loss to 127 for 4. Naseem Shah who possibly bowled the best spell after lunch dislodged Fernando. One of the most consistent of Sri Lanka batsman DKG Mendis (10) was seen edging behind of debutant Usman Shinwari’s only wicket of the day. Though wayward and unimpressive before lunch, Shinwari looked like getting wicket in a post lunch session that saw him bowling from over the wicket. LD Chandimal’s (2) off stumps was disturb by Mohammad Abbas’ peach of delivery to leave tourists tattering at 127 for 4 before DM de Silva (38 not out) and AD Mathews (31) were seen adding 58 runs for the fifth wicket. Mathews turned out to be the second of Naseem Shah’s victim. The youngster who is just a few months shy of turning 17 was displaying aggression and speed in patches. “What we wanted was to contain Sri Lanka and we possibly were succeeded in that early on. It was after lunch that we tried to put extra pressure and ultimately succeeded in taking wickets regularly,” Naseem said in a post match media talk. He looked excited playing in front of home crowd. “We all are playing first Test at home and are excited to perform in front of home crowd. The moment we put the ball on right place we got support from the wicket.”Sri Lanka 1st innings:D. Karunaratne lbw b Shaheen 59O. Fernando c Sohail b Naseem 40K. Mendis c Rizwan b Shinwari 10A. Mathews c Shafiq b Naseem 31D. Chandimal b Abbas 2D. de Silva not out 38N. Dickwella not out 11Extras: (b 5, lb 3, nb 3) 11Total: (for five wkts; 68.1 overs) 202To bat: D. Perera, V. Fernando, K. Rajitha, L. KumaraFall: 1-96 (Karunaratne), 2-109 (Fernando), 3-120 (Mendis), 4-127 (Chandimal), 5-189 (Mathews)Bowling: Abbas 20.1-7-50-1, Shaheen 16-6-37-1 (nb3), Shinwari 14-4-47-1, Naseem 16-4-51-2, Sohail 1-0-9-0, Masood 1-1-0-0Toss: Sri LankaUmpires: Richard Kettleborough (ENG) and Michael Gough (ENG)TV umpire: Richard Illingworth (ENG)Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM).

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