Noman Ali's seven-fer takes Green Shirts to earn Series 2-0, Nasim gets three wickets
Sports Bulletin Report
Colombo (Sri Lanka): Noman Ali’s best figures in an innings led Pakistan to an emphatic innings and a 222-run win over Sri Lanka on day four of the second Test match at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo on Thursday.
The win also kept Pakistan’s 100 per cent record in the Test series, clean sweeping the hosts in the two-match Test series and starting the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25 on a winning note. Pakistan had defeated Sri Lanka by four wickets in Galle.
Resuming their first innings at the overnight score of 563 for five in 132 overs, Pakistan declared their innings after two overs adding 13 runs and without losing any wickets. Rizwan who returned unbeaten on 37 the previous day, scored 13 runs and brought up his half-century off 67 balls, hitting four fours and one six. Salman Ali Agha, who played six balls in the morning, didn’t add any runs to his overnight score of 132, which included 15 fours and one six.
In turn, Sri Lanka, resuming their second innings with a deficit of 410 runs, were found unplayable by the spin bowling from left-armer Noman Ali. Noman bagged first seven wickets to fall and ended up with match figures of 26-9-80-7. Naseem Shah, who bowled with pace and reversed swing the ball, bagged the final three wickets. He also took three wickets in the first innings and his match figures was 31.4-8-85-6.
Abdullah Shafique for his maiden double century was named player of the match.
Scores in brief (day 4 of 5)
Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by an innings and 222 runs
Sri Lanka 166 all out, 48.4 overs (Dhananjaya de Silva 57, Dinesh Chandimal 34, Ramesh Mendis 27; Abrar Ahmed 4-69, Naseem Shah 3-41, Shaheen Shah Afridi 1-44) and 188 all out, 67.4 overs (Angelo Mathews 63 not out, Dimuth Karunaratne 41, Nishan Madushka 33; Noman Ali 7-70, Naseem Shah 3-44)
Pakistan 576-5 decl, 132 overs (Abdullah Shafique 201, Salman Ali Agha 132 not out, Saud Shakeel 57, Shan Masood 51, Mohammad Rizwan 50 not out Babar Azam 39; Asitha Fernando 3-133, Prabath Jayasuriya 2-194)
Player of the match – Abdullah Shafique (Pakistan)
