Galle, July 18: Pakistan’s middle-order comprising the southpaw Saud Shakeel and right-handed batter Salman Agha stitched 177-run partnership to help their team take a decisive lead against Sri Lanka.
On Day 3, after the rain delayed the start of the match, the overnight unbeaten batters—Saud and Salman—continued their merry way and piled up misery for Sri Lanka.
Eventually, Salman Agha was out after a well compiled knock of 83 runs. His prized wicket was claimed by off-spinner Ramesh Mendis. Saud, however, continued to bat and played intelligent cricket with the tail-end batters to score his maiden double hundred. He remained unbeaten on 208* runs from 361 balls, laced with 19 fours.
Pakistan was all out for 461 runs, taking a crucial lead of 149 runs. Lanka were 14/0 in their response when the bad light stopped play at the end of Day 3 of the Galle Test.
Lanka in their first innings had made 312 runs. Middle-order batter Dhananjaya de Silva scored a century.
For Lanka, Ramesh Mendis took a 5-fer while left-arm spinner Prabhat Jayasuriya took three wickets.
For Pakistan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and spinner Abrar took three wickets, each, while Agha Salman chipped in with a wicket.
