‘Pakistan to chase and make history?’ : Twitter prophesies on the enthralling fourth Day of the second Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka

The second Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan continued to enthral the audience on Day 4 as Sri Lanka tightened their grip on the Test by posting a huge total for Pakistan to chase in the fourth innings.

Sri Lanka resumed their innings on 176/5 at the start of the day’s play with captain Dimuth Karunaratne and Dhananjaya De Silva unbeaten on 27 and 30 respectively. The duo continued to bat responsibly and extended their partnership for the sixth wicket as they kept frustrating the Pakistan bowlers who were desperate to get some wickets to come back into the game. Their magnificent partnership of 126 was broken as Karunaratne was finally dismissed for a well-made 61.

Following the dismissal, Pakistan expected to wrap up the Sri Lankan innings quickly but the Sri Lankan tail crushed all their hopes as they gave good support to the well-set De Silva. The Sri Lankan vice-captain continued to put his marvellous stroke play on display as he approached his hundred. He was involved in two more good partnerships, first with Dunith Wellalage of 35 runs for the eighth wicket and then with Ramesh Mendis of 82 runs as Sri Lanka propelled their lead past 500.

De Silva brought up his century as he square-cut a wide delivery from Mohammad Nawaz for a boundary. Following which both the batters launched an onslaught on the Pakistan bowlers. An unfortunate runout ended both De-Silva’s and Sri Lanka’s innings as captain Karunaratne declared on the score of 360/8 setting a humongous target of 508 runs for Pakistan in the fourth innings.

Pakistan had a steady start to their chase as openers Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq looked unfazed by the big target in front of them. The duo added 42 runs for the first wicket before Shafique went for a wild heave down the ground and ended up mistiming the shot as the ball went soaring in the sky. Dimuth Wellalage, who was at mid-off, came underneath it and completed a brilliant catch running backwards.  Pakistan finished Day 4 on the score of 89/1 with bad light forcing the umpires to go off the ground before the scheduled stumps time.

Here’s how Twitter reacted to the action on Day 4 of the Test: