{"id":4226,"date":"2026-11-11T19:03:44","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T14:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4226"},"modified":"2026-11-11T19:03:44","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T14:03:44","slug":"centurions-de-silva-mendis-foil-pakistan-as-sri-lanka-dig-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4226","title":{"rendered":"Centurions De Silva, Mendis foil Pakistan as Sri Lanka dig in"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Dhananjaya de Silva and Kusal Mendis showed great staying power as both posted centuries to lift Sri Lanka to 404-4 on day three of the first Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi on Wednesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

De Silva was unbeaten on a polished 167 while Mendis was 117 not out as the pair frustrated Pakistan in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 249, bringing Sri Lanka within 30 runs of the home team\u2019s total of 434-9 declared.<\/p>\n

Mendis became the first Sri Lankan to score a century in his maiden Test as captain, after taking the reins from De Silva before this series.<\/p>\n

Their stand is a record for Sri Lanka against Pakistan, improving upon the 207 by Thilan Samaraweera and Tillakaratne Dilshan in Lahore in 2009.<\/p>\n

De Silva, lucky to be dropped on 38 by Saud Shakeel off pacer Razaullah, took full advantage of the reprieve and has so far struck 20 boundaries in his 241-ball knock.<\/p>\n

Mendis was more aggressive with four sixes and 10 boundaries as Sri Lanka added 290 in the day, before bad light ended play 15 minutes early.<\/p>\n

Kamindu Mendis believes his team can get a good lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a good position,\u201d said Kamindu. \u201cThe first session tomorrow will be crucial, so if these two set batters can continue and give us a good lead, then we can go to the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pakistan pacer Mohammad Abbas praised De Silva and Mendis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put up a lot of effort but credit to the Sri Lankan pair on batting so confidently,\u201d said Abbas. \u201cWe need to get them out quickly for a fightback.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Silva cracked a boundary off spinner Arafat Minhas to complete his 14th Test hundred, fourth against Pakistan and second at the venue.<\/p>\n

Mendis brought up his 11th century with a ramp boundary off Razaullah.<\/p>\n

After a day of toil for Pakistan\u2019s bowlers, Abbas has figures of 2-64 while debutant Saqib Khan is 2-105.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka lost just one wicket in the first session of the day\u2019s play as De Silva and Kamindu put on a 90 for the fourth wicket, ensuring Sri Lanka built up from an overnight total of 114-3.<\/p>\n

Kamindu completed his eighth Test fifty before edging Abbas to wicketkeeper Ghazi Ghori to leave Sri Lanka 155-4.<\/p>\n

Kamindu\u2019s 58 came off 131 balls, peppered with eight fours.<\/p>\n

The second Test is also in Rawalpindi starting November 17, having been shifted from Lahore due to poor weather.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dhananjaya de Silva and Kusal Mendis showed great staying power as both posted centuries to lift Sri Lanka to 404-4 on day three of the first Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi on Wednesday. De Silva was unbeaten on a polished 167 while Mendis was 117 not out as the pair frustrated Pakistan in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 249, bringing Sri Lanka within 30 runs of the home team\u2019s total of 434-9 declared. Mendis became the first Sri Lankan to score a century in his maiden Test as captain, after…<\/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-4226","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\/4226","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=4226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}