Rain suspends play in historic Pakistan Test

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan’s first home Test in a decade was affected by bad weather on Friday, with rain and an already sodden pitch forcing officials to suspend play on the third day of the contest against Sri Lanka.

After day three’s first session was washed out by wet weather, only 27 minutes of play was possible before the players walked off with just 5.2 overs bowled. The umpires called off play at 15:35pm local time (10:35 GMT), after only 91 overs of play in three days.

Sri Lanka progressed to 282-6 from an overnight total of 263-6, with Dhananjaya de Silva on 87 — 13 short of his fourth Test hundred. Dilruwan Perera was unbeaten on six as stop-start play left the players and some 2,000 fans, mostly schoolkids, frustrated. On Thursday, rain and poor light kept the teams off the field for all but 83 minutes. For Pakistan, 16-year-old paceman Naseem Shah (2-83) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (2-58) were the most successful bowlers.