ABU DHABI: Pakistan pacers grated Sri Lankan batting line on the first of Abu Dhabi Test to wrest control against the opponents, ARY News reported.
Left arm-fast bowler Junaid Khan sustained his throttlehold over the Sri Lanka batsmen, picking up his 4th five-wicket haul against them. The man who initiated the damage was debutant Bilawal Bhatti, who took three wickets in post lunch spell two of them in one over. Spinner Saeed Ajmal picked up 2 wickets.
Sri Lanka was very much comfortable with 66 for 1 at lunch, but faced a collapse losing seven wickets for 58 runs. Captain of Sri Lanka, Angelo Mathews, who scored a counterattacking 91, prevented a complete capitulation. Both the veterans from which Sri Lanka expecting much Kumara Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene didn’t able to resist the pace attack for longer and departed back to pavilion scoring 16 and 5 runs.
Sri Lanka were eventually bowled out for 204 and Pakistan had a comfortable start to their innings till a run-out off the last ball took some sheen away. Khurram Manzoor was the batsmen who got run out at the last ball of the day after scoring 21 runs. Ahmed Shahzad remained not out at 25. Pakistan at the stumps of first day were 46-1 after 18.1 overs.
