Saturday 23 June 2012
"Solid Sangakkara guides Sri Lanka past 400"
Sri Lanka v Pakistan, 1st Test, Galle, 2nd day
Tea Sri Lanka 439 for 8 (Sangakkara 170*, Ajmal 5-138) v Pakistan
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| Saeed Ajmal led Pakistan's fightback in the morning |
Kumar Sangakkara once again showed he loves batting against Pakistan, as he moved towards his third Test double-century against them. In the morning, Saeed Ajmal had
underlined why he's the top-ranked Test spinner in the world by taking three big wickets to raise hopes of a Pakistan fightback. Prasanna Jayawardene, though, again supported Sangakkara for a couple of hours to keep Sri Lanka firmly ahead in the Galle Test.
Batting wasn't easy even before Ajmal's strikes as Umar Gul once again bowled a spirited but fruitless spell, using the short ball repeatedly to try unsettling the batsmen. The other quick Junaid Khan hasn't been disappointing so far, and he was given only two overs at the start of the day before Ajmal was called on.
Only 11 runs had come off the first seven overs of the day, and like on Friday, Mahela Jayawardene decided to ease the pressure with an enterprising stroke, this time a reverse-sweep for four. Two balls later, he went for the slog-sweep against Ajmal, but missed and was bowled.
Sangakkara has been Sri Lanka's most assured batsman in the match, but even he had his problems against Ajmal. He used the slog-sweep effectively, picking up a couple of boundaries in an Ajmal over, but in between he was beaten by the extra bounce Ajmal generated. Once, as he looked to defend outside off, he couldn't get anywhere near the ball as it spun away sharply.
He survived, but Thilan Samaraweera didn't last long. The Ajmal doosra, possibly the most feared delivery in Test cricket today, confounded Samaraweera, dragging him out of the crease, before Adnan Akmal completed a smart stumping. The very next ball, Angelo Mathews perished, though it wasn't due to any Ajmal magic. It was a full and wide delivery that Mathews limply drove at to hand the bowler a simple caught-and-bowled. In two deliveries, Ajmal had taken as many wickets as Pakistan had on all of the first day.
Left-arm-spinner Abdul Rehman didn't have the same success as Ajmal, though he too posed plenty of questions for the batsman. Early in Prasanna Jayawardene's innings, Rehman got a delivery to drift in before spinning just past the outside edge, and bouncing just over the middle stump. A wicket there and Sri Lanka would have been 346 for 6, and Pakistan could have eyed a quick close to the innings.
Instead, once again a Sangakkara-Jayawardene partnership frustrated them. The batsmen found it a little easier after lunch, with Prasanna flicking several boundaries off his pads. Sangakkara was circumspect, with only four fours in the first two session, and allowed Prasanna to do more of the scoring. The pair added 80 to lift Sri Lanka past 400, and though Prasanna was caught behind on 48, the damage had already been done.
Sangakkara moved to 170 by tea, but with Pakistan striking twice more time before tea, he could run short of partners before reaching the milestone.
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