Day 3: Sri Lanka look to go for win over Pakistan after Kaushal Silva's century

Sri Lanka’s Kaushal Silva and Angelo Matthews

After scoring 178-3 on Day 2, the match see-sawed both ways, but Sri Lanka seemed to dominate over Pakistan by the end of Day 3. For the first time in three days, there was an on-time start with the sun shining brightly over Galle.

Angelo Matthews and Kaushal Silva came out to bat but could not build on the start they got, as Matthews edged an in-swinger from Wahab Riaz into the stumps in the 68th over of the innings. The captain was able to score only 19 in 40 balls. Silva, 125(300), went on to score a century before being dismissed by Zulfiqar Babar. It was all downhill from there for Sri Lanka as their entire line-up collapsed after scoring a total of 300 runs in 109.3 overs, with Riaz and Babar taking three wickets each and Mohammad Hafeez and Yasir Shah taking two each.

Pakistan then stepped on the field to bat in the second session, with captain Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad as openers. Dhamika Prasad began Sri Lanka’s bowling attack and drew first blood, dismissing Hafeez for just 2 runs in 6 balls, who edged the ball to third slip. Prasad struck again in his second over and sent opener Shehzad back to the pavilion.

Pakistan continued to score at a gentle pace of 2.83 till the end of the day’s play and lost three more wickets on the way, with Herath, Pradeep and Perera taking one each. Sri Lanka managed to dominate over Pakistan by sending half the team back to the pavilion with 118 on board in 41.4 overs.

With two more days to go, Sri Lanka is at the moment in the driver’s seat and are looking to go for a win in the Test.