Second day of Rawalpindi Test hit by bad weather

RAWALPINDI: Heavy rain and bad light hit the second day of the historic Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi on Thursday, Pakistan’s first home Test since 2009.

Sri Lanka, resuming at 220-5, had progressed to 225-5 in 7.5 overs when heavy rain in the morning forced the teams to have early lunch. Play was stopped for two hours and 43 minutes but when it resumed only 10 overs were possible with Sri Lanka losing Niroshan Dickwella for 33 before bad light accompanied by rain forced an early call-off at 3:30 pm.

At the close, Sri Lanka were 263-6 with Dhananjaya de Silva unbeaten on 72 and Dilruwan Perera not out on two. The stop-start play left both teams frustrated as well as 2,000 fans who had come to watch the revival of Test cricket in Pakistan.

When play resumed after lunch Pakistan took the second new ball and with it lanky pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi removed Dickwella, caught at gully by Babar Azam. Dickwella, who hit four boundaries, added 67 for the sixth wicket with de Silva, thwarting Pakistan’s attempts for early wickets.

Pakistan burned a review later that same over when Shaheen thought he had Dilruwan Perera trapped in front, only for the ball to have been shown to have pitched outside leg stump. De Silva has so far hit 11 boundaries in his 131-ball stay.

Earlier, the brief period of play saw wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan claim a catch to dismiss de Silva off the bowling of 16-year-old Naseem Shah, but third umpire Richard Illingworth ruled the ball had bounced. On the next ball de Silva completed his half-century with two runs off Naseem.

Naseem, who with 2-65 was the pick of Pakistan’s bowlers, was intense through this period, repeatedly beating both batsmen, while drawing thick inside edges that missed the stumps.

Sri Lanka won toss

Sri Lanka 1st Innings

*D Karunaratne lbw b Shaheen 59

O Fernando c Haris b Naseem 40

K Mendis c Rizwan b Shinwari 10

A Mathews c Asad b Naseem 31

D Chandimal b Abbas 2

D de Silva not out 72

†N Dickwella c Babar b Shaheen 33

D Perera not out 2

Extras (b 5, lb 6, nb 3) 14

Total (6 wickets; 86.3 overs) 263

Still to bat: V Fernando, K Rajitha, L Kumara

Fall: 1-96, 2-109, 3-120, 4-127, 5-189, 6-256Bowling: Abbas 24-9-56-1; Shaheen 19.3-7-47-2 (nb 3); Shinwari 15-4-54-1; Naseem 22-4-75-2; Haris 3-0-12-0; Shan 1-1-0-0; Asad 2-0-8-0

Pakistan: Shan Masood, Abid Ali, *Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Asad Shafiq, †Mohammad Rizwan, Usman Shinwari, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi

Umpires: Richard Kettleborough and Michael Gough (England). TV umpire: Richard Illingworth (England). Match referee: Andy Pycroft (Zimbabwe)