vs
Sri Lanka
1st test day 2 Live Streaming online
If Pakistan were slightly ahead at the end of the innings, the last half hour, when Nuwan Kulasekara and Thilan Thushara took a wicket each, made sure the match was as balanced as it was when it started.
Like 17-year-olds should, Mohammad Aamer sprung suddenly on Sri Lanka, taking two wickets in his first two overs. Like hardened domestic sloggers should, the 30-year-old Abdur Rauf came back to do the repair work, taking out beneficiaries of early dropped chances - Tharanga Paranavitana and Mahela Jayawardene. Even before he surprised Sri Lanka by breaking two threatening partnerships, Younis Khan had read the pitch well, played three fast bowlers, and chosen to field first.
Aamer vindicated the decision right away, following his first-over success on Twenty20 international debut with the wicket of Malinda Warnapura in his first over in Tests. Right from the first over Aamer got the ball to move both ways, bowling regularly in the mid-130s.
Warnapura hadn't looked comfortable, lofting Aamer unconvincingly, barely over mid-on. The next ball was shorter, moving in sharply, cramping him, and taking the bottom edge onto the stumps. If it was the inward movement that got Warnapura, the away movement should have got Paranavitana in his next over. The batsman was on 1 then. That didn't deter Aamer from getting new Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara to edge through to third slip in the next over.