After losing the first Test against Pakistan, Sri Lanka made a great comeback in the second Test and won by a massive 246 runs. The home team made a comprehensive effort to grab the upper hand against Pakistan in the second match. With this win, the two-match Test series has been levelled at 1-1.
Sri Lanka were put into a commanding position from the first innings itself. On the back of great batting, the home team got to 378 runs. Dinesh Chandimal continued his rich vein of form as he made 80 runs in the first innings. Their bowling, which was impressive in the last match too, went a step further to knock down Pakistan’s batting lineup and halted them at just 231 in the first innings.
Coming on to bat in the second innings, Sri Lanka continued where they left off and made an even more impressive 360/8 before declaring the innings. Dhananjaya de Silva made the only century of the match on what was a tricky wicket to bat on.
It was, however, the bowling duo of Ramesh Mendis and Prabath Jayasuriya, who took 17 wickets between them and wrote the script for a Sri Lanka win. Mendis, in the first innings, and Jayasuriya, in the second innings, took fifers to bamboozle the Pakistan batting lineup. In the end, Pakistan saw a batting collapse from 176-2 to 261 in what could be only termed as a bad approach.
Sri Lanka’s comprehensive win in the second Test has brought a major change in the World Test Championship table. South Africa sit at the top with 71.43% just mere points ahead of Australia who have 70%. Sri Lanka, with five wins and four losses, moves to third in the table with 53.33%.
They have jumped three places from sixth to now sit at third. Meanwhile, India remain fourth with 52.08%. Pakistan have fallen down two places and sit at fifth with 51.85%, having four wins and three losses. West Indies, England, New Zealand and Bangladesh occupy the rest of the positions.
