Yasir Shah delivers dream spell to bamboozle Sri Lanka

Leg-spinner’s career-best figures condemn hosts to ignominious defeat at Galle

KARACHI: Shane Warne reckons that Yasir Shah is currently the best leg-spinner in the world and the Australian would surely have taken great delight in the Swabi-born spinner’s exploits at Galle.

Yasir’s seven wicket haul (7-76) dethroned Warne’s own return of 7-94 — in the 2002 Colombo Test against Pakistan — as the best-ever figures by an overseas bowler on Sri Lankan soil.

In only his eighth Test, Yasir won Pakistan a game they had no business winning after the lows the visitors endured on day three, tottering at 96-5 in reply to Sri Lanka’s 300-run first innings score.



Yasir spun a vicious web around the hosts, who are renowned for their batting skills against spin. The turn, bounce and drift that the 29-year-old extracted from a wearing Galle strip has doubtlessly enhanced his credentials at the international level.

The biggest scalp for the right-armer was legendary Kumar Sangakkara, whom he removed with a sharp leg-spinner in the dying moments of the fourth day. Yasir looked in sublime bowling form from the outset on the decisive morning of the rain-marred Test and the very first ball of the day removed night watchman Dilruwan Perera.

But after a largely listless and lean two-hour period, Yasir — who has climbed up the rankings to 14th — seized the initiative once the obdurate Lahiru Thirimanne was removed by Wahab Riaz on the stroke of lunch.

Angelo Mathews was controversially given out caught at short-leg but the rest of Yasir’s wickets were as comprehensive as they come.

Dimuth Karunaratne, Kithuruwan Vithanage, Rangana Herath and Dinesh Chandimal were all sucked in by deliveries that pitched on a near-perfect length.

Yasir added nine scalps to his burgeoning Test career haul. In eight games he has now collected 46 wickets. His returns are better than even those of Waqar Younis and Muhammad Asif at this career juncture.

Yasir has already played stellar roles in the 2-0 whitewash of Australia, the win over New Zealand at Abu Dhabi and the Mirpur win against Bangladesh last month.

Since he made his debut last year, Pakistan have won five and lost only one Test and Yasir already has two five-wicket hauls in his kitty with an average of 26.19. The bubbly right-armer has a long road ahead but without doubt his start has been refreshingly assuring for Pakistan’s diminishing bowling stocks in the longest format.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd,  2015.

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