The first Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi ended in a draw on Friday, 13 November, after both captains shook hands 25 minutes into the final session with Pakistan on 284 for 8 and 272 runs ahead. The match produced three rare records and 1,164 runs, yet no result, because rain and bad light took more than 100 overs out of the five days. Saud Shakeel finished with 190 runs and no hundred, Saqib Khan took seven wickets on debut, and three debutants scored fifties. None of it beat the light.
Saud Shakeel: 190 runs, no hundred
Saud Shakeel scored 93 in the first innings and 97 in the second, falling in the nineties twice in the same match. He was caught behind off Asitha Fernando for 93 off 199 balls in the first innings, then bowled by Lahiru Kumara for 97 off 210 balls in the second, trying to hit the bowler back over his head with the light going. He needed three more runs for a hundred. The two dismissals make him only the fifth batter in Test history to be dismissed in the nineties in both innings of the same match, and the first since Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene, who scored 92 and 96 in 2009. West Indies great Gordon Greenidge did it twice, in 1977 and 1980.
The 93 was already the third nervous-nineties dismissal of Saud’s Test career, after 97 and 94 against England. The second-innings 97 made it four, with two of them coming in the same match. His second-innings effort mattered more than the record. Pakistan resumed the final day on 57 for 1 and slipped to 151 for 5 at lunch, leading by only 139, with Sri Lanka sensing a win. Saud stayed for 210 balls and added a 92-run sixth-wicket stand with Ghazi Ghori, who made 35, before his dismissal ended the contest.
Saqib Khan: seven on debut
Saqib Khan took seven wickets for 130 runs on debut, the fourth-best innings figures for a Pakistan bowler on debut. No Pakistan bowler has ever taken more than seven wickets in an innings on debut. Mohammad Zahid, Mohammad Nazir and Abrar Ahmed are the others to have claimed seven. Saqib struck with an eight-over spell on the fourth morning, taking five wickets for 25 runs as Sri Lanka collapsed from 404 for 4 to 446 all out, losing their last six wickets for 42 runs.
Sri Lanka had looked set for a big lead. Dhananjaya de Silva scored 167 and captain Kusal Mendis scored 119, adding 249 runs for the fifth wicket. Saqib removed de Silva with the fifth ball of the fourth day, then had Kusal edging behind two runs later. Their partnership had carried Sri Lanka from trouble to a strong position, but the collapse left their lead at only 12 runs. Pakistan had declared on 434 for 9.
Three debutants, five fifties
Pakistan’s first innings also carried a record of its own. Three debutants, Tayyab Arif, Mohammad Taha and Arafat Minhas, scored fifties in the same innings, only the second time that has happened in the 149-year history of Test cricket. The only previous case was Zimbabwe’s inaugural Test in 1992, when Andy Flower, Grant Flower and Dave Houghton all reached fifty. Tayyab scored 57, Minhas 52 and Taha 51, and with Saud’s 93 and Babar Azam’s 50, Pakistan had five half-centuries in one innings.
The light won
For all the batting and bowling, the match was decided by the weather and the light. Bad light had already eaten 45 overs in the first two days, and by the end of the fourth day more than 100 overs had been lost to rain and bad light, including nearly two sessions on Thursday. Only 308 of a possible 450 overs were bowled, and the pitch never got the time it needed to produce a result. Across the five days the teams scored 1,164 runs for the loss of 27 wickets. Pakistan’s second innings ended at 284 for 8, and with no time left the captains agreed the draw.
What the draw is worth
The draw gives each side four World Test Championship points, and neither team moves in the table. The two-match series stays level at 0-0, and the second and final Test starts at the same ground on Tuesday, 17 November. The second Test was moved from Lahore to Rawalpindi because of smog, so the series will now be decided entirely in Rawalpindi. Pakistan will take confidence from a debutant who took seven wickets and a middle order that produced five fifties, but Saud Shakeel will remember 190 runs, two nineties, and still no hundred. More sports news from Pakistan.
