Twitter Reactions: Sri Lanka make a comeback after early failures on Day 1

Sri Lanka went into stumps at 227/4.

By Ankit Mishra

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4 Min Read

Dimuth Karunaratne of Sri Lanka
info
Dimuth Karunaratne of Sri Lanka leaves the field after being dismissed. (Photo by Tom Dulat/Getty Images)

A roaring Pakistan and a timid Sri Lanka took on each other in the first Test match of the series at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi to commence the long tour. The visiting skipper Dinesh Chandimal would’ve thanked his stars when the coin flip went his way. He elected to bat first, the obvious decision when you are playing in the subcontinent. Pakistan handed over Haris Sohail his debut cap for the game while the Lankans went with the best combination they could compile.

Openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva started very cautiously and ensured the new ball bowlers didn’t find a breakthrough in the first 17 overs. Skipper Sarfraz Ahmed brought in Hasan Ali to have a go at the Lankans and though he didn’t create any magic Silva’s indecisiveness cost him the wicket. He wanted to leave one that was outside the off-stump but was too slow to react and it deflected onto his wickets.

Yasir Shah who was Ali’s bowling partner from the other end struck in the very next over. Lahiru Thirimanne who made a decent ODI comeback against India at home was out for a duck, as he was hit on his pads in front of the wickets failing to handle the leg-spinner. With that, Yasir claimed his 150th Test wicket becoming the joint 2nd fastest Pakistani to the mark. In another space of 10 overs Shah got rid of Kusal Mendis and Sri Lanka looked in trouble at 61/3.

That was when Karunaratne and skipper Chandimal started the rebuilding operation. The duo batted together with a lot of determination and made the bowlers work hard. Though Pakistan were tight from their end offering nothing at cheap. They added a hundred run partnership and in the meantime took them into tea at 143/3 with the opener on 81 and Chandimal batting on 32.

As he looked set for his hundred Karunaratne ran himself out on 93 and walked back discontented with his own effort as his 205-ball vigil ended sour. Chandimal didn’t let that derail the innings and stood strong with Niroshan Dickwella to continue their defying effort. By the time it was stumps they had added 66 runs together, the scoreboard reflected 227/4; the skipper got to his half century and was batting on 60 while his partner remained unbeaten on 42.

Here is how Twitterati reacted during the course of the day:

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