Asad Shafiq’s seventh hundred and a belligerent 96 from Sarfraz Ahmed helped to give Pakistan a sizeable lead against Sri Lanka on the fourth day of the opening Test in Galle yesterday.
Sri Lanka had hoped for quick wickets in the morning when Pakistan resumed on 118-5, but a sixth-wicket stand of 139 between Sarfraz and Asad Shafiq (131) put paid to their chances.
Another 101-run stand for the ninth wicket between Shafiq and Zulfiqar Babar (56) gave the visitors the upper hand in the match.
Pakistan were finally all out for 417 with a first-innings lead of 117.
Pakistan then piled on the pressure and picked up two wickets in the remainder of the day’s play as Sri Lanka reached stumps on 63-2 in their second innings, still trailing by 54 runs.
Kaushal Silva (5), a centurion in the first innings, and the experienced Kumar Sangakkara (18) were the batsmen out.
Opener Dimuth Karunaratne (36) and nightwatchman Dilruwan Perera (0) were at the crease for the hosts.
Earlier, wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz caused disarray in Sri Lanka’s disciplined attack with his innovative batting, hitting 13 fours in his knock.
His downfall came when he tried an unorthodox sweep against fast bowler Dhammika Prasad, with the ball catching the inside edge and going on to hit the stumps.
The dismissal gave Prasad his third wicket of the innings.
Shafiq was calm and composed during the partnership and hit five fours in his stay.
He brought up his hundred with a boundary as the right-hander danced down the track to loft off-spinner Perera straight back over his head.
Shafiq continued to frustrate Sri Lanka’s bowlers with useful partnerships with the lower-order batsmen.
He added 38 with Wahab Riaz (14) for the seventh wicket and another 29 for the eighth with Yasir Shah (23) that took Pakistan past 300.
The ninth-wicket partnership with Babar, who also posted his highest Test score and first 50, took Pakistan’s lead into triple figures.
Shafiq became the final Pakistan wicket to fall when he was stumped by wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal.
Perera was the most successful Sri Lanka bowler, taking four wickets, while Prasad picked up three.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier