Sri Lanka resumed day four in Rawalpindi 30 runs behind Pakistan with six wickets in hand and a 249-run partnership still unbroken. By the time their innings ended they were all out for 446, their lead just 12 runs, and a debutant fast bowler had taken seven wickets. Saqib Khan finished with 7 for 130 as Sri Lanka lost their last six wickets for 42 runs, turning a day of Sri Lankan dominance into a morning of collapse and resetting a Test that had looked ready to drift towards a draw.
A collapse measured in overs, not sessions
Sri Lanka had ended day three on 404 for 4, trailing by 30. Dhananjaya de Silva was unbeaten on 167 and captain Kusal Mendis on 117, and their fifth-wicket stand of 249 had carried the visitors from 155 for 4 to within sight of a first-innings lead. The fourth morning undid it all in 15.2 overs. Sri Lanka added 42 runs and lost six wickets, and of the four batsmen who followed the two set men, only Sonal Dinusha, with 20, reached double figures.
Saqib struck in the first over of the day, having Dhananjaya caught behind for 167 off 246 balls, with 20 fours. In his next over he removed Kusal for 119 off 202 balls, with 10 fours and four sixes. The two men who had batted Sri Lanka into control were gone within two overs of each other, and the lower order folded behind them.
Sonal Dinusha made 20, Milan Rathnayaka 12, Asitha Fernando 4 and Lahiru Kumara 0. Razaullah took the one wicket Saqib did not, dismissing Rathnayaka, while Mohammad Abbas finished with two wickets in the innings. Sri Lanka were bowled out in 117.2 overs, and the 249-run stand that had defined day three now reads as a partnership that produced no lead of substance.
Saqib’s debut, told in two spells
Saqib, 31, from Karachi, is one of four debutants in this match, and his first Test has followed a clear arc. On day two he struck with the new ball, removing Dinesh Chandimal for 1 with his ninth delivery in Test cricket for his maiden international wicket, then dismissing Lahiru Udara for 42 as Sri Lanka slipped to 65 for 3. He finished that day with 2 for 54.
Day four gave him five more wickets in the morning and a match-leading return of 7 for 130 in 34 overs, with five maidens. They are the best bowling figures of the match so far, ahead of Asitha Fernando’s 3 for 107 and Dilshan Madushanka’s 3 for 108 in Pakistan’s innings. The wickets came in clusters that mattered: two in his first two overs of the day to break the stand, then three more as the tail offered little resistance.
Pace did what spin could not
The contrast with day three is stark. On Wednesday, Pakistan’s spinners bowled 44 overs between them and took no wickets: Razaullah went for 127 runs in 23 overs and Arafat Minhas for 92 in 21, a combined 219 runs without a dismissal while the Dhananjaya-Kusal stand grew past 200. On Thursday morning the seamers did the damage instead. Saqib took five of the six wickets to fall, and the two spinners’ day-three figures now read as the cost of a day when Pakistan had no answer to the partnership.
Pakistan’s own innings showed what the pitch offers a batsman who gets in. The hosts declared on 434 for 9 after five batsmen passed fifty: Saud Shakeel made 93, Tayyab Arif 57, Arafat Minhas 52, Mohammad Taha 51 and Babar Azam 50. That flatness is what makes Saqib’s seven wickets stand out: on a surface where five men made fifties, one debutant fast bowler took seven wickets.
What a 12-run lead means now
A 12-run first-innings lead is, in practical terms, no lead at all. The first innings of both sides are effectively cancelled out, and the Test is now a second-innings contest with the rest of day four and all of day five to play. Pakistan have already lost Tayyab Arif for 11 in their second innings, lbw to Asitha Fernando, so the reset has come with an early warning.
Time, not the pitch, is now the main obstacle to a result. Nearly 45 overs were lost to bad light across the first two days, and both days ended early. If the light holds on days four and five, Pakistan have enough time to set Sri Lanka a target; if it does not, a draw that looked likely at stumps on day three becomes likely again for a different reason. Either way, the morning belonged to Saqib Khan, and Sri Lanka’s day-three dominance is now worth only 12 runs.
