Cricket News By TODAYLIVESCORE.INFO - Fernando, Mendis help Sri Lanka gain upper hand. The pair continued to mix caution with aggression and guided the side to the break.
The pair continued to mix caution with aggression and guided the side to the break.
Oshada Fernando and Kusal Mendis stitched an unbeaten alliance of 91 for the second wicket to help Sri Lanka gain upper hand in the Galle Test versus Pakistan. When lunch was taken on Day 3, the hosts had progressed to 132/2 in their second innings, ahead by 136.
In the first over of the day, the nightwatchman Kasun Rajitha was dropped by Babar Azam. In the very next over, Mohammad Nawaz dismissed Rajitha to leave Sri Lanka two down. Unfortunately for the visitors, they couldn't make another breakthrough throughout the rest of the session. Initially, both Fernando and Mendis looked to deal in a diet of singles and twos before Mendis cracked the cut stroke off Nawaz to put more pressure on the left-arm spinner.
Fernando also decided to play with more freedom as he essayed a delightful lofted shot into the downtown territories off Yasir. Meanwhile, Mendis was intent on bringing the sweep and collected a boundary via that shot in the 25th over. His batting partner, Fernando, soon brought up his fifty with a single off Yasir in the 27th over. In an attempt to break the promising stand, Yasir and Pakistan even took an optimistic review for a caught-behind appeal against Fernando but to no avail. The pair continued to mix caution with aggression and guided the side to the break.
The tourists would look to bowl with better control in the second session. Pakistan's task is made even more difficult by the fact that they would get less bite out of a relatively old Kookaburra ball.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka222 and 132/2 (Oshada Fernando 64*; Mohammad Nawaz 2-36)lead Pakistan218 (Babar Azam 119; Prabath Jayasuriya 5-82) by 136 runs.
