{"id":4149,"date":"2026-11-10T19:03:47","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T14:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4149"},"modified":"2026-11-10T19:03:47","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T14:03:47","slug":"sri-lanka-struggle-to-114-3-after-pakistans-first-test-declaration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4149","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka struggle to 114-3 after Pakistan’s first Test declaration"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Debutant pace bowler Saqib Khan grabbed two wickets as Sri Lanka struggled to 114-3 by the end of day two of the opening Test after Pakistan declared at 434-9 in Rawalpindi on Tuesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saqib dismissed Dinesh Chandimal for one in his second over and then removed a well-set Lahiru Udara for 42 to leave Sri Lanka on 65-3.<\/p>\n

His experienced pace partner Mohammad Abbas took the first wicket, having opener Pasindu Sooriyabandara caught behind for a duck in the third over.<\/p>\n

Kamindu Mendis (40) and Dhananjaya de Silva (22) were unbeaten at the close, with Sri Lanka still trailing by 320 runs on the first innings.<\/p>\n

Bad light again stopped play 25 minutes before schedule.<\/p>\n

De Silva was dropped by spinner Arafat Minhas in the penultimate over of the day.<\/p>\n

Saqib had the figures of 2-54, while Abbas took 1-23.<\/p>\n

Pakistan middle-order batter Saud Shakeel earlier missed his century by seven runs, a miscued hook off Asitha Fernando giving wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis his fifth catch in the innings.<\/p>\n

Shakeel, who became Fernando\u2019s 100th wicket in 29 Tests, hit nine boundaries in his 199-ball innings.<\/p>\n

He lifted Pakistan from 281-5 overnight with a resolute 96-run stand with Ghazi Ghori for the sixth wicket. Ghori scored a confident 48.<\/p>\n

Shakeel said he was disappointed at missing a fifth Test century.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, you get disappointed when you miss a milestone, and it looks bad,\u201d said Shakeel. \u201cBut we have put up a good total with Arafat chipping in with a half-century.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sri Lankan fielding coach Jordan Gregory hoped his batters would show grit to match Pakistan\u2019s total.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to take the match session by session and hope that the Kamindu-De Silva partnership goes on and make a match of it because the pitch has enough to produce a result,\u201d said Gregory.<\/p>\n

Debutant Minhas made a stylish 52, the fifth half-century of the innings, that included nine boundaries and a six.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka had hoped for early wickets but struggled on a seemingly hard and green pitch, despite taking the second new ball after 80 overs.<\/p>\n

Dilshan Madushanka finally made the breakthrough when Ghori edged him to gully, where Sooriyabandara held a low catch.<\/p>\n

Pace bowlers Fernando and Madushanka were the pick of the Sri Lanka attack, both taking three wickets.<\/p>\n

The second and final Test is in Lahore from November 17.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debutant pace bowler Saqib Khan grabbed two wickets as Sri Lanka struggled to 114-3 by the end of day two of the opening Test after Pakistan declared at 434-9 in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. Saqib dismissed Dinesh Chandimal for one in his second over and then removed a well-set Lahiru Udara for 42 to leave Sri Lanka on 65-3. His experienced pace partner Mohammad Abbas took the first wicket, having opener Pasindu Sooriyabandara caught behind for a duck in the third over. Kamindu Mendis (40) and Dhananjaya de Silva (22) were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}