Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi led a motivated attack to bundle out Sri Lanka for 222 runs but the hosts bounced back with two wickets before stumps on the first day of the first Test on Saturday.
After losing their openers Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafiq, the tourists reached 24 for two by the end of the game in Galle.
Azhar Ali was on three and captain Babar Azam was batting on one and Pakistan are still trailing by 198 runs.
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Fast bowler Kasun Rajitha took Imam for two leg before wicket and Prabhat Jayasuriya dismissed Shafiq for 13 runs with his left-arm spin on the bowlers’ dominated day.
Left-arm pacer Shaheen stood out with figures of 4-58 but Dinesh Chandimal’s 76 and a late cameo from Mahesh Thikshana’s 36 runs gave the hosts the fighting total on a pitch helping the spinners.
The hosts were faltering at 133-8, but added 89 runs for the last two wickets, including a 44-run stand by Teekshana and Chandimal, who hit 10 fours and a six.
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Shaheen ended the innings with the wicket of Thikshana in the final session of the game.
The pacer sent skipper Dimuth Karunaratne back for a run in the third over of the day and leg-spinner Yasir Shah soon teamed up with the pacers to put Sri Lanka in trouble.
Oshada Fernando and Kusal Mendis tried to rebuild the innings with a 49-run stand but Yasir, who had been making a comeback in the side from a thumb injury since August last year, was ruled out.
Yasir got Kusal caught for 21 and Oshada soon returned to the pavilion behind his teammate in the next over when paceman Hasan Ali cut the opener’s stay for 35.
Angelo Mathews falls for a 15-ball duck as Yasir is caught at mid-on by the former captain.
After lunch, Shaheen took two wickets and fellow pacer Naseem Shah and left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz took one wicket each.
Chandimal smashed 19-year-old Naseem for three straight boundaries and got the audience excited over the weekend.
Chandimal, who scored an unbeaten 206 in Sri Lanka’s series-level Test win over Australia earlier this week, finally took a fine catch with Yasir taking his second wicket at cover.
But Thikshana played a brilliant innings in her second Test itself and scored an unbeaten 12 with Rajita to add 45 runs for the last wicket.
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