Babar Azam's resolute century leads Pakistan fightback against Sri Lanka

GALLE: Pakistan captain Babar Azam completed his seventh Test hundred and led the side's fightback against Sri Lanka on the second day of the opening Test here on Sunday.

With nine down and the score reading only 148, Sri Lanka looked set to gain a healthy lead but Babar Azam stitched a valuable stand of 70 for the last wicket with Naseem Shah, who scored just five runs off 52 balls.

Prabath Jayasuriya couldn't have written a better script in his second Test, taking five wickets and giving away only 82 runs. He was a menace to Australia on debut and Pakistan too got a taste of the skill of the left-arm spinner.

Jayasuriya struck off just the third ball of the day by trapping Azhar Ali in front of the stumps. After a brief period of resurgence from Pakistan, courtesy of the partnership between Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, Ramesh Mendis strangled the latter down the leg-side.

The wicket opened the gates for Sri Lanka, with Jayasuriya wreaking havoc thereafter. Debutant Agha Salman was done by the left-arm spinner's arm ball. A few overs later, Jayasuriya recorded his third five-for in as many innings and was on a hat-trick having dismissed Mohammad Nawaz and Shaheen Afridi off consecutive deliveries.

Earlier in the morning, Pakistan managed to add 80 runs to their overnight score but lost five wickets doing so.

While wickets continued to tumble at one end, Babar Azam put up a gritty resistance at the other. As he has made a habit of, he broke yet another record during his innings -- he became the fastest Pakistan batter to 10,000 international runs across formats and fourth overall.

The grind continued for the Pakistan skipper, who received some support first from Yasir Shah and then Hasan Ali. With the two, Babar Azam added crucial 27 and 36 runs for the 8th and 9th wicket respectively and also brought up his 22nd Test fifty in the process.

At 148/9, Sri Lanka were in the driver's seat and were on the verge of taking a big lead. However, what followed was an incredible show of grit and resistance from the final wicket pairing of Babar Azam and Naseem Shah.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 222 (Dinesh Chandimal 68 not out, Maheesh Theekshana 38; Shaheen Afridi 4-58) and 40/1 (Mohammad Nawaz 1-12) lead Pakistan 218 (Babar Azam 119; Prabath Jayasuriya 5-82) by 40 runs. IANS

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