Karunaratne 196 pushes Pakistan on the back foot

It will need a herculean effort by Pakistan to force a result in its favour in the second and final Test in Dubai and keep its unbeaten seven-year record in the United Arab Emirates intact after Sri Lanka again dominated on the second day of the day-night game on Saturday(October 7).

Sri Lanka was in the driver’s seat when the day's play ended, riding on a career-best 196 from Dimuth Karunaratne to post a big 482 in their first innings, to which Pakistan replied well, going to stumps at 51 for no loss with Sami Aslam on 30 and Shan Masood on 15. Sarfraz Ahmed’s men need 231 more to avoid being asked to follow-on, that too against Rangana Herath on the third day.

Pakistan badly missed a second spinner on a flat pitch as Sri Lanka thrived against depleted and inefficient bowling by an attack mainly shouldered by Yasir Shah and, to an extent, the hard working Mohammad Abbas.

Pakistan's desperate effort to make an unfit Mohammad Amir (right shin-bone injury) bowl in the first innings was unwise and ended in the spearhead walking off after only a short three-over spell in the morning. The ill-advised move ended in bad news, as Amir was later ruled out of the One-Day International series that will follow this Test.

Wahab Riaz, meanwhile, was sloppy, miscalculating his run up on five occasions in an over that lasted seven and a half minutes.

Karunaratne, who ended up missing his maiden double-century by just four runs, led the Sri Lankan batting. A tired looking punch off Yasir was deflected to his thigh and on to the stumps to end his 547-minute knock, which was studded with 19 boundaries and a six.

Karunaratne was as good at the crease on Saturday as he was on Friday. His 146-run stand with Dinesh Chandimal, the captain, was finally broken by a stroke of good luck for Pakistan. Chandimal padded a leg break by Yasir and although the replays showed the ball missing the off stump, Chandimal chose not to review and walked off silently.

Niroshan Dickwella further piled agony for Pakistan, cracking a 53-ball 52, his 50 coming off just 48 balls as he added 88 with Karunaratne before edging Abbas to Sarfraz.

Dilruwan Perera then came in and hit out as he helped Karunaratne add more quick runs, the approach of Dickwella and Perera showing that Sri Lanka wanted to put Pakistan in towards the end of the day. Perera scored 58 in 76 balls.

Yasir took 6 for 184 in a marathon 55.5-over labour. His five-for was also the first instance of a spinner picking up five-fors in five consecutive Tests, after Sydney Barnes (seven Tests in a row) and Charlie Turner and Alec Bedser (six in a row). But Yasir's efforts only highlighted Pakistan's lack of wicket-taking options, which could yet make them lose the series.