Cricket: Pakistan win series after drawing third Test against Sri Lanka
Persistent rain wiped out play in the pre-lunch session -- a two hours and 35 minutes delay -- which left Sri Lanka with little time to enforce a win despite declaring their second innings at 181-6, setting Pakistan a target of 255 in a possible of 61 overs.
By tea, Sri Lanka had taken three early wickets and were pressing for a win. Pakistan lost a further fourth wicket when opener Taufiq Umar fell for 39, before they finished at 87-4 when umpires called off the match four overs earlier due to bad light.
Skipper Misbah-ul Haq (nine) and Asad Shafiq (seven) survived some anxious moments to salvage a draw.
Pakistan won the second Test in Dubai by nine wickets after the first in Abu Dhabi ended in a draw. The result kept Pakistan on the sixth ranking, as they needed a 2-0 victory to jump one place up and replace Sri Lanka on fifth.
Pakistan started positively before losing Mohammad Hafeez (13), Azhar Ali (seven) and Younis Khan (11) in the space of 37 runs.
Hafeez had struck a boundary in the first over by Chanaka Welegedara but fell in an unwise manner, run out after taking a sharp single as he failed to beat a direct throw from mid-wicket by substitute Lahiru Thirimanne.
Ali, who scored a maiden hundred in the second Test, was trapped leg-before wicket by left-arm spinner Rangana Herath before Younis played an uppish drive off Welegedara and was caught at mid-on.
Umar miscued a drive off spinner Suraj Randiv and was caught by Kumar Sangakkara at point, leaving Pakistan at 77-4.
Sri Lanka, who have now gone 13 Tests without a win since beating India at Galle in 2009, had hoped to score some quick runs in order to set Pakistan a target and then get their rivals out for a victory.
But overnight rain and constant drizzle forced the umpires to keep the team away from the ground, part of which remained covered during the morning session.
When play finally resumed 35 minutes after lunch, Sri Lanka lost Kosala Kulasekara (seven) before declaring the innings at 181-6, after 2.2 overs of batting.
Opener Tharanga Paranavitana remained not out 76, made off 168 balls with five boundaries and a six.
Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal finished with 3-50 and paceman Umar Gul took 2-44.
The series highlighted Sri Lanka's batting frailties, especially in the first innings where they were bowled out for 197 and 239 in the first two Tests.
If not for Kumar Sangakkara's 516 runs in six innings at 86.00, Sri Lanka would have been hard pressed to save the two matches.
Pakistan can take consolation from the fact that they have not lost a single series since the spot-fixing and corruption scandal of last year which ended in jail terms for their former Test captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer.
Both teams will now start a five-match one-day series with the first game in Dubai on November 11. They will also play a Twenty20 in Abu Dhabi on November 25.
Pakistan are playing "home" tests in the Gulf region due to security concerns in their own country.
COMMENTS (20)
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It is necessary that the format of the five day test be changed so that a decision of win or lose is achieved at the end. Otherwise it will remain a sport watched by a shrinking audience.
Nice to see the Ijaz Ahmad as a mentor.
@F Khan, I think you should be careful with your language. You are entitled to your opinions regarding any player's capabilities but using words like "bugger" are un-called for.
Congratulation to every one PAKISTAN ZINDABAD, pak team won SAARC cup also.
I see problems coming up in the Pakistan one day team because the bugger is back and will try to play politics to become the captain. The joker has this in his genes. He has two more problems one he thinks cricket is played with a tongue and that the boundary is vertical and not horizontal.
congratulation team Pak!
INSHALLAH we will perform better and better in future!!
9 runs on 86 balls. Misbah once again proved to be the lazziest batsman ever in Paki history.
Amazing series win. Misbah is the greatest ever defensive player, Brendon Taylor should learn from our Misbah on how to save a test match on the 5th day.
@unpatriotic: I think you do not have any knowledge of Cricket...as rightly pointed out by others I may line up the factors for not going for a win: 1) Hafeez , the only aggressive player got out relatively early 2) it was last few sessions of a day 5 test match pitch 3) we were already winning the series....so winning 1-0 is far better than getting it 1-1 4) even if we had gone for runs, the oppostion might have resorted to pure defensive approach 5) there are no field restrictions in tests 6) good bowlers can bowl as many overs as they want to 7) bowlers can bowl outside leg stump or off stump so that it hard to hit without getting penalized for a wide 8) if they had lost the match like 208 all out in 42nd over then people like you might have went the other way round....i.e. people would have said it was stupid to go for win when the series was in pocket by just drawing...!!!! 9) test cricket is not as blind as ODI or T20, it is classic in which even a draw is as interesting as a win.... 10) balls were behaving abruptly, some bouncing, some keeping low, some holding up , some carrying through...whereas T20 or ODI pitch is always fresher than a 5 day old test pitch so usually it is easy to go for shots even in 90th over of day in ODI.....!! 11) one can never please everyone....so even if it was dull, boring or snail paced batting... keeping in view the number of blockers in batting line up....this was the best team could have opted for.......on a turning, variable bounce 5th day track WELL DONE PAKISTAN....WE LOVE YOU....YOU ARE UNBEATEN FOR THE LAST 15 MONTHS IN TEST SERIES...You drew SA, won in NZ, drew WI, won in ZIM and now won against SL.....
Congratulation to team Pakistan! @ the people who would still complain, you need to stop the negativity and appreciate the fact that they won a test series against a good test team.
Congratulations Team Pakistan. keep building momentum by winning and winning. Good Job
I think Pakistan batted very well because pitch was slow and wickets fell quickly. Another reason is that this is test cricket not one day and T20.
'14' tests without a win since Murali stopped at no. 800!
@unpatriotic: The nature of the pitch changed over the days as it was expected, that's why spin was a bit too hot to handle, and that's why Sri Lanka didn't went +400 in the 2nd innings. Had we won the toss, batted first and scored the same, we could have won the 3rd Test too, our bowling (fast & spin) being better.
Heartiest congratulation to Pakistan Team. @unpatriotic, it was a great performance against A class team. Its not easy to chase these runs on the last day of a test match.
@unpatriotic: they could also have lost the test....and then you would have claimed match fixing
Quite an achievement after all the scandals over the past 2 years! What makes it even better is that it is Pakistan's first Test series win over a higher-ranked opponent since 2005 and now just 6 average ranking points behind Australia. Hope Misbah's form carries on for 2 more years as he is doing a good job in stabilizing the team and getting good results.
@unpatriotic
It's not the same thing as getting those runs in an ODI. There are no field restrictions and wides have a much larger margin. Bowlers can bowl any number of overs the wish. Also, this is a 5th day pitch= harder to bat on.
Congrats to Pakistan and great that they held their nerve in the end to win the series. :)
Great Win..... we need that after lot of bad news...
impotent performance from pakistani team. pakistani team could for sure win this match they needed 227 in 53 overs.