On day three of the first Test on Monday, Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Chandimal hit his second half-century in a row. This put his team ahead by more than 300 runs and stopped the Pakistani attack led by Babar Azam. At the end of the day’s games in Galle, the home team was 329 for nine when the game had to be stopped because of bad light. At the end of the second innings, Sri Lanka was ahead by 333 runs, with Chandimal on 86 and Prabath Jayasuriya.
Pak vs SL | Hot Dinesh Chandimal leads Sri Lanka to 300
Mohammad Nawaz took three wickets and shook up the middle order of the other team with his first five-wicket haul, which he shared with fellow spinner Yasir Shah in the second session. When the hosts’ score dropped to 235-7, Chandimal stayed strong in another show of resistance from the lower order. He had been playing very well. Last week, when his team won the Test against Australia to tie the series, it was his first double century (206 not out).
He got 50 runs and shared 41 runs with Maheesh Theekshana for the ninth wicket. This helped the home team get back from 133-8 to 222, just like they did in the first innings. Early on, they lost a wicket, but Kusal Mendis scored 76 and opener Oshada Fernando scored 64. Together, they put up 91 runs for the third wicket, which was very important. Before lunch, Oshada hit his sixth Test fifty. On the very next ball, Yasir got him out. Kusal was bowled by Yasir with an unplayable ball that pitched outside leg and spun to hit the top of off stump. He had just reached fifty and hit a couple of fours against the bowling attack. Nawaz, who is playing in his fourth five-day match and his first Test in almost six years, kept chipping away and took important wickets, such as those of Angelo Mathews and Niroshan Dickwella.
He got things started for Pakistan by getting rid of the nightwatchman Kasun Rajitha with the third ball of the day. However, the Sri Lankan batsmen kept fighting back on a pitch that will probably give the spinners more turn on day four. Pakistan had fought back and scored 218 on day two, thanks in large part to captain Babar Azam’s 119, which he made while batting with his own lower order in a close-fought match between the bottom two teams.
