Despite the Pakistani team finishing the fourth day of the Galle Test in a stable position, there was a strange conflict in the minds of the fans that this time the result would not be like the 2009 Galle Test where the Pakistani team lost the last eight wickets for just 46 runs. Losing the Test by 50 runs or the Pakistan team will be able to repeat the performance of the 2015 Palikley Test where they easily crossed the target of 377 runs thanks to centuries from Younis Khan and Shan Masood.

The loss of two wickets in the first session and another early in the second session on Wednesday added to captain Babar Azam’s uneasiness and when victory was only 11 runs away, rain tried to spoil the game. However, the Pakistani team overcame all these difficulties and crossed the target of 342 runs with the loss of six wickets to win this Test by four wickets.

This is the eighth victory in 12 Test matches of the Pakistani team under the captaincy of Babar Azam.

Detailed match scorecard

 

The main character of this victory was the opener Abdullah Shafiq, who kept his nerves under control and played a brilliant innings of 160 runs not out. He faced 408 balls in this long innings and his innings included six fours and one six. Abdullah Shafiq’s consistency has made him one of the few batsmen in the world who have played a Test match. More than 400 balls have been played in the fourth innings. Before him, only four batsmen, England’s Mike Atherton and Herbert Sutcliffe, India’s Sunil Gavaskar and Pakistan’s Babar Azam have won this honor. Another 120 runs were required.

Observers and pundits had pointed out that the wicket had become spin-friendly in the last few overs on the fourth day and the smiles were back on the faces of the host bowlers. The most important thing is that the host team had finished the game on the fourth day. First, Babar Azam was able to get the valuable wicket. Sri Lanka had high hopes from left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya on the last day that he would turn the dice by bowling like the second Test against Australia at the same Galle ground. They tried on their own but could not get the support they needed from the other end. The partnership of Abdullah Shafiq and Mohammad Rizwan was crucial from Pakistan’s point of view as Mohammad Rizwan was the last experienced batsman at the crease. For both of them, the beginning of the fifth day was no less than a test. Batpad appeal rejected on Mendes’ ball against Abdullah Shafiq. At the score of 135, he was caught by D’Silva while he got his second chance at 151 when his easy catch was dropped at square leg off D’Silva. Jayasuriya against Mohammad Rizwan. Captain Karuna Ratne immediately took a review on the appeal of Cut Be Hind on the ball, but the review declared the not out decision of field umpire Dharmasena as correct.

Abdullah and Rizwan progressed the innings slowly, avoiding any rush, but Jayasuriya also made his presence felt when he managed to get Mohammad Rizwan lbw. Rizwan took the help of the review but the umpire’s decision was in favor of the bowler. Rizwan played a crucial innings of 40 runs and added 71 runs in the fourth wicket partnership with Abdullah Shafiq. Opened his account and then got four runs from a reverse sweep off Mendes but could not live up to the claim with which he was brought into the team. Neither his off-spin option worked for the team nor both. Batting in the innings and the decision to give him a Test cap in place of the experienced Fawad Alam backfired. Jay Surya had sent him out behind the wicket for an individual score of 12, causing concern in the Pakistani dressing room. This was Jayasuriya’s fourth wicket in his 50th over of the innings. Immediately after the lunch break, Hasan Ali Dhanan added to the woes of the Pakistani team by picking up the wicket of Jaya de Silva. Pakistan team was 38 runs away from victory when the sixth wicket fell. Mohammad Nawaz was well aware that he was the last batsman who could join Abdullah Shafiq to give the team a new cross as the last three batsmen sitting in the dressing room were tails. Anders and then the duo added a valuable 39 runs to give the Pakistani team a chance to celebrate.

Abdullah Shafiq’s consistency

Abdullah Shafiq started his career with a century in the 2019 National T20 Cup. He was the fourth batsman to score a century in his first T20 match in Pakistan domestic cricket. In the same season, he also started his first-class career with a century.

Abdullah started his international T20 career with a 41 not out against Zimbabwe in Pindi, but in the tour of New Zealand he was dismissed for zero in both T20 matches. Unlike the T20 format, Abdullah in the Test team. has cemented his place as a reliable batsman. Scoring half-centuries in both innings of his first Test against Bangladesh, he formed first-wicket century partnerships with Abid Ali both times. He also performed brilliantly in the three Test series against Australia. After scoring an unbeaten 136 in the Rawalpindi Test, he played an innings of 96 in Karachi and 81 in Lahore.

A target of three hundred or more

This is the fourth time in Test cricket that the Pakistani team has won a Test match by crossing the target of three hundred or more runs and the Pakistani team is the only Asian cricket team to achieve such a feat. was obtained. This innings included the centuries of Younis Khan and Shan Masood and the unbeaten half-century of Misbah-ul-Haq. A year before that, in 2014, the Pakistani team had achieved the target of 302 runs for five wickets in the Sharjah Test. Azhar Ali’s century, Misbah’s 68 runs and Sarfaraz Ahmed’s 48 runs were prominent in this win. The first time Pakistan achieved this feat was in 1994 when the Pakistani team set a target of 314 runs as a result of the last wicket partnership of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mushtaq Ahmed. The Karachi Test was completed by winning by one wicket in a dramatic manner.