Opening batsmen Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva hit half centuries on Sunday and drove Sri lanka to an emphatic 9-wicket victory over Pakistan in the second Test to go 1-0 up in the series.
Karunaratne remained unbeaten on 62 while Silva fell for 58 as Sri lanka reached 137-1 for its biggest win by wickets among the 45 tests played between the two nations.
Resuming at 330-7, fast bowler Suranga lakmal dashed Pakistan’s hopes of putting up a fight with a career-best 4-78 before Pakistan was bowled out for 359 in an hour on the last day — an overall lead of 136 runs.
Kumar Sangakkara (9) pulled Saeed Ajmal to midwicket boundary and then ran the winning run to finish the match at tea on the last day.
Sri lanka’s most experienced batsman Mahela Jayawardene braved the pain in his stitched left hand to score 129 as Sri lanka established a first innings lead of 223 by scoring 388 in the first innings.
Jayawardene’s clubmate Silva missed his maiden test century but also scored a vital first innings 95 which impressed Mathews.
Karunaratne and Silva played out cautiously and steadily progressed to 35-0 by lunch before they cut loose after the break.
Without injured fast bowler Bilawal Bhatti, who was nursing a hamstring injury and couldn’t bowl in the second innings, Pakistan struggled to get the breakthrough and both batsmen scored freely.
Pakistan came close to separating the two openers but Asad Shafiq couldn’t hold on to Silva’s uppish drive off luckless Ajmal when the batsman was on 24.
Ajmal finally got the consolation wicket when he had Silva leg before wicket with Sri lanka needing only 13 runs for victory. Silva added 124 runs for the opening stand and hit five fours in his 134-ball knock. Karunaratne hit eight boundaries and faced 125 balls in his unbeaten innings.
Pakistan’s tail resisted for an hour and added 29 to its overnight 330-7 before it was bowled out.
Brief Scores
Sri lanka: 388 and 137/1 (Karunaratne 62 no, Kaushal Silva 58; Saeed Ajmal 1/45) beat Pakistan: 165 and 359 (Misbah-ul-Haq 97, Younis Khan 77, Sarfraz Ahmed 74; Suranga lakmal 4/78) by 9 wickets. AP