First Day's play

By Thaleelbhai
October 21 2004

After a bold move to select only three specialist bowlers for the first test match, Shoaib Akthar and Mohammad Sami vindicated the team management's decision by making some vital inroads to the Lankan top order and giving their side the advantage after the first day. Akthar had been under fire for his performance in the recent Paktel tri-series, but seemed to get everything right in his opening spell. The third ball swung in a touch, beat Marvan Atapattu for pace and had him leg before without a run on the board. The early wicket only motivated the Rawalpindi Express to run in even harder, and he dismissed Sangakarra with another pacy ball just outside off with some away swing, which Sangakarra obligingly edged into Imran Farhat's hands at slip. Mohammad Sami put even more pressure on the visitors with a faultless outswinger that clipped the edge of Jayawardene's bat and went straight to Moin Khan, reducing Sri Lanka to 9/3.

The tourists would have been in an even worse position, had it not been for some uninspired fielding which failed to back up the efforts of the bowlers. Abdul Razzaq induced a wild slash and an edge from Jayasuriya which Inzamam spilled - and Sri Lanka may well have lost another wicket with some horrendous running between the wickets from Jayasuriya. After calling for a single, Samaraweera was only sent back when almost halfway down the pitch - and would have been run out by a distance had it not been for another insipid throw and a lack of backing up. The fielding cost Pakistan as Samaraweera got himself set at the crease and played a near chanceless innings, playing very few aerial shots as he grafted his way to a vital 97 not out by stumps. At the other end though; wickets kept falling - Jayasuriya paid for one too many loose slashes through the off side, Mubarak looked confident at first, but a testing spell from Sami eventually had him nicking one to Inzamam - who this time held onto the chance. Kaluwitharana played one of his more typical hit-or-miss innings, scoring a boundary before giving Danish Kaneria his only wicket of the day, before Vaas and Herath helped Samaraweera resurrect the innings.

Herath has shown some ability with the bat in first class cricket (he has 6 fifties to his name), and utilized it here as he set about repairing his test average of 2.16 with a gritty stand alongside Samaraweera. After Vaas fell to Akthar, Herath dug in to build a 50-run partnership before stumps were called with the score on 233/7. Even though the scoreline will no doubt show Pakistan's dominance over the first day, the hosts will be wary of a gritty Sri Lankan tail: against South Africa just a couple of months ago, the Lankans had been 279/7 at stumps, before Mahela Jayawardene built up several key partnerships with the tail giving him assistance to set up a final score of 486. After doing a lot of hard work and taking out the top order on the first day, Pakistan will need to use the new ball (due two overs after play begins) and try and break through once more - and hopefully restrict Sri Lanka below 260. Their only worry will be the workload of their strike bowlers - Sami and Shoaib bowled 37 overs between them out of 78 in the day, and with Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Malik as backups, it is vital for Pakistan that neither of those two gets overworked or exhausted this match to allow Sri Lanka back in. If Pakistan can take the next three wickets quickly and start getting runs on the board with their batting depth, they may very well be able to bat Sri Lanka out of the match by the second or third day.