Younis Khan with his superlative century brought a complete turnaround for Pakistan. He got good support from skipper Misbah-ul-haq and Asad Shafiq to put Pakistan out of trouble when they were 59 for 3 at lunch.
In first session the picture looked quite grim for Pakistan but they performed well in second and third session scoring 81 and 121 runs respectively at the expense of just a single wicket.
The rain delayed the start by 30 minutes. Misbah ul Haq had opted to bat first under cloudy skies. The decision is bit challenging for the top order as it’s not easier to tackle bowlers at wet pitch.
The openers Khurram Manzoor (3) and Ahmed Shahzad (4) were gone by the sixth over to Dhammika Prasad. Younis and Azhar Ali(30) fought, but the patient Rangana Herath produced a ripper to limit the partnership to 37 with the wicket of Azhar Ali.
Then, Younis along with Misbah added 100 run in the fourth wicket partnership guiding Pakistan to a stable position before Misbah was out at individual score of 31 runs.
Following the Misbah’s departure Asad Shafiq played wonderfully and scored 55 not till the end of the day. Younis Khan was on 133*.
Today, the ball generated enough movement in the morning session but the conditions eased out during the next two sessions. However, the morning session will be mighty important tomorrow as Pakistan haven’t really broken away from the safe limit.
Pakistan will look to stretch the score past 400 while Sri Lanka would try to get early breakthroughs in the morning session of day 2.
