Sri Lanka vs Pakistan, 1st Test - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Series: Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka, 2015 Venue: Galle International Stadium, Galle Date & Time: Jun 17-Jun 21, 10:00 AM LOCAL

Pakistan entered Day 5 with a slight upper hand. © Cricbuzz

Pakistan turned the tables on Sri Lanka in the first Test after Asad Shafiq hit a century to lead a remarkable rearguard action by the lower order on the fourth day on Saturday. The tourists, who resumed the day at 118-5 in reply to Sri Lanka's 300, piled up 417 in their first innings before being dismissed in the post-tea session with a lead of 117 runs in Galle.

Sri Lanka were 63-2 in their second knock at stumps, having lost first-innings centurion Kaushal Silva (five) and star batsman Kumar Sangakkara (18) in the 21 overs before close. Azhar Ali caught Silva at third slip off Wahab Riaz and later snapped up Sangakkara at short-leg off Yasir Shah. Opener Dimuth Karunaratne was unbeaten on 36 and nightwatchman Dilruwan Perera had yet to score as Sri Lanka enter the final day's play on Sunday still trailing by 54 runs with eight wickets in hand.

Yasir Shah picked up a wicket off the first ball of the day by sending back night-watchman Dilruwan Perera for a duck. The batsman shouldered arms to a straight delivery and was bowled. Sri Lanka slipped to 63/3.

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Hafeez got off the mark with a dab to third-man for a couple off Herath, who opened the attack for Sri Lanka. In the same over, Hafeez managed his first boundary by cutting the left-arm spinner past backward point. Herath rapped Hafeez on the pads with a delivery that went straight with the arm. The onfield umpire ruled in favour of the batsman, which prompted Sri Lanka to opt for the review. However, replays revealed that the ball was missing leg-stump, resulting in Sri Lanka losing a review. Ahmed Shehzad took a while to get off the mark, scoring his first run off the eighth delivery he faced when he took a single off Prasad in the fourth over. In the same over, Hafeez hit the seamer for a couple of boundaries.

Hafeez was finding the boundaries at regular intervals while Shehzad rotated the strike well as the opening pair scored at a good rate to keep Pakistan on track in the chase. With a boundary of Dilruwan Perera in the ninth over, Shehzad extended the partnership past fifty. He then took the attack to Herath, scoring three boundaries in a row off the left-arm spinner in the 10th over. Hafeez took the attack to Perera, scoring a six and a four in the 11th over to take Pakistan closer. A boundary for Shehzad off Herath in the 12th over got Pakistan the winning runs as they won by 10 wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the Test series. Shehzad was unbeaten on 43 off 35 while Hafeez took 33 deliveries for his 46 not-out.

The first day of the Test was completely washed out due to rain and Pakistan won the game an hour after tea on the final day. It was a Test win to savour for the men in green, who came back well after being put under some pressure at the start of the match. A superb victory was achieved on the back of Yasir Shah's seven-for in the second innings while Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed and Zulfiqar Babar also played important roles in helping Pakistan register their first win on Lankan soil since April 2006.

Sri Lanka were asked to bat first and Kaushal Silva came up with a fine knock of 125. However, the rest of the batsmen, barring Kumar Sangakkara (5), failed to come up with anything substantial as the hosts ended up with a first-innings total of 300. In reply, Pakistan suffered a top-order collapse and were reduced to 96/5 before Shafiq (131), Sarfraz (96) and Zulfiqar Babar (56) came up with fine knocks to help the visitors take an 117-run lead.

The Lankan batsmen came up with a poor display in the second innings as most of them fell to poor strokes. Dimuth Karunaratne (79), Lahiru Thirimanne (44) and Dinesh Chandimal (38) came up with fighting knocks but they threw their wickets away which meant that the hosts were bowled out for 206, giving Pakistan a target of 90 with a session left. Yasir Shah was splendid with the ball as he finished with a career-best 7/76 - the best figures by a leg-spinner in a Test match in Sri Lanka. Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad did not have any problems in the second essay as they took only 11.2 overs to get to the target.