Pakistan vs Sri Lanka, 1st Test at Abu Dhabi, Day 3

The 39-year-old finished with 6/43 – 11/136 in the match – to help Sri Lanka dismiss Pakistan for 114 after they were set a target of 136 to win on the fifth and final day at Sheikh Zayed Stadium. Remarkable achievement, all the credit goes to my parents, family, the team and the management. There was, however, a mini revival, the only bright spot at that for Lanka batting as Niroshan Dickwella and Lakshan Sandakan stitched a crucial 34-run partnership.

After another impressive batting performance, Yasir Shah lifted Pakistan to the driver’s seat, dismissing two Sri Lankan top order batsman towards the end of Day 4 of the 1st Test at Abu Dhabi last evening. His compatriot Muttiah Muralithran remains the fastest bowler to pick up 400 wickets, a feat he achieved in just 72 matches.

Rangana Herath is playing his 20th Test against Pakistan and he has numbers to show them. The pitch began to sing for him, the batsmen played him with fatal hesitation, Dilruwan Perera was even denied the winning wicket by a no-ball, just so Herath could complete 400 Test wickets – the first left-arm spinner to the milestone.

The collapse started with the early wicket of Kusal Mendis, who was trapped leg-before wicket by Mohammad Abbas in the third over of the day. Among these 10 instances, 11.43, the average runs scored per wicket, in Abu Dhabi Test is the lowest.

The visitors then kept chipping away at Pakistan as Dilruwan Perera and Herath got Babar Azam and Asad Shafiq respectively and suddenly Pakistan were at sixes and sevens.

Pakistan trailed Sri Lanka by 153 runs after resuming on 266-4.

As interesting as it may sound, Herath is the very same bowler who had scalped 22 wickets against this same team, back in 2014, which now stands as a world record for most wickets in a two-match Test series. As a result, Sri Lanka folded for 138.

– This is also Sri Lanka’s smallest margin of win. Dickwella was unbelievable in the second innings, he got us to the 140 mark.

2 – Rangana Herath is only the second left-arm bowler (pace and spin) in Test history to take 400 wickets.

Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed called the defeat “disappointing”. “We were always going to be under pressure as the game goes on because we couldn’t expect the tail to get us over the line”, quoted Mickey Arthur as per the quotes in Cricbuzz. “We all knew the legend Rangana would come into play, and finally he did his best”. When you are getting old, it gets increasingly hard, it’s a different feeling (on his 400 Test wickets).