Pakistan 342 and 71 for 2 (Butt 28*) need 97 to beat Sri Lanka 292 and 217 (Ajmal 3-34, Aamer 3-38, Younis 2-27)
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
A fiery mid-afternoon spell from Mohammad Aamer and stable stock bowling from Younis Khan (yes,Younis Khan) rattled Sri Lanka's second innings, setting themselves 168 to win the Galle Test, in which pace bowlers had taken 22 out of the 30 wickets to fall.
History was on Sri Lanka's side (no team has scored more than 6 runs in the fourth innings to win a Galle Test, and if achieved 168 would be the third-highest total in fourth innings here), but the nature of the pitch and the contest on Pakistan's. During the early stages of the three-quarters of the last session that Pakistan batted, a record-making win seemed on the cards, but two quick wickets late in the day meant the fourth, and most likely the final day won't be purely academic.
While Aamer has been the revelation of this match, Younis' bowling proved to be the wild card yet again - after he had broken two vital partnerships in the first innings. Pakistan started the first two sessions on a high - Umar Gul taking a wicket in the first over of the day, and Aamer taking three post-lunch - but were thwarted for some time by two partnerships, both ended by Younis.
Aamer's spell was the highlight, with swing both ways at good pace, and featuring the big wickets of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jaywardene. His third victim was Tharanga Paranavitana, the first-innings half-centurion, who fell for 49 this time.
The action started late - after a 30-minute rain delay - but with immediate returns for Pakistan. Malinda Warnapura had a poor effort again, poking at the second delivery of the day, without moving his feet.
Nightwatchman Rangana Herath, though, proceeded to frustrate them almost till lunch, playing and missing regularly as is the nightwatchman's wont. It didn't help that Gul lost his rhythm fairly early, bowling four no-balls in a three-over spell. Paranavitana cashed in on that blip, and punished every poor delivery wholesomely. Those three overs went for 22, and Sri Lanka were on their way.
Younis put a stop on the flow of runs, through Abdur Rauf and himself. Both were unlucky that they didn't get Herath in the next nine overs. A plumb lbw off Rauf was missed by the umpire, and Younis kept beating him outside the off stump.
With two overs to go for lunch, Younis went for the pads as opposed to the outside edge, and ended the frustrating 68-run stand. Sri Lanka went in to lunch with the score effectively on 20 for 2. Paranavitana, who had been kept off strike for most of the last hour had moved to 42 in only 50 deliveries.
Post lunch, though, Aamer made the ball sing - and it wasn't music to the batsmen's ears. In the fourth over after the interval, Paranavitana got one that moved away from him and took the edge. Jayawardene, for the second time, got a good delivery, in Aamer's next over. The ball pitched in front of stumps, and moved away sharply, kissing the hanging bat on the way. In his next over, Sangakkara edged another swinging delivery, and 86 for 2 had become 101 for 5, a lead of just 51 runs.
Thilan Samaraweera counterattacked, so did Tillakaratne Dilshan. A flurry of boundaries, mostly drives down the ground, eased the slip cordon, and brought a mid-off in. In no time the two added 37 runs, but the captain returned to put the lid on. He didn't get as much movement as in the first spell, but went for only two in his two overs. Then he changed ends, and in his second over of the new spell got Dilshan. It was not the best of shots, though, chasing a wide and full delivery and guiding it to second slip.
For good measure Saeed Ajmal, who had Dilshan dropped off his bowling earlier, came back and got Samaraweera with a doosra. The eight-wicket partnership between Angelo Mathews and Nuwan Kulasekara had added by 35, but a slash outside off just after tea ended Mathews' 27. A quick 20-run partnership between Kulasekara and Thilan Thushara carried the target past 150, but Ajmal made sure it didn't go too far.
Salman Butt and Khurram Manzoor were conspicuously more watchful than they were in the first innings. Against the new and moving ball, they tried to play as few shots as possible, and kept Sri Lanka at a distance, also adding 36 in that period. At the end of the 11th over, an out-of-shape ball was changed, and the new ball got the breakthrough right away, with Manzoor edging Ajantha Mendis outside off. Younis the batsman was as off the colour as Younis the bowler was, and got beaten by a sharp inswinger by Mathews.
From 39 for 2, though, Butt and Mohammad Yousuf played out the nervous period till stumps. Butt, especially, didn't look bogged down, and a late-cut from Yousuf in the last over before bad light stopped play brought the target inside 100. (Column by Miss Sadia naz crazycricinfo Staff reporter)
probables for the ICC Champions Trophy in September this year. The selectors picked a longlist of 30 players for the tournament, to be held in South Africa, including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan.
Dravid played his last ODI in October 2007 against Australia in Nagpur, where he managed seven runs. He averages 39.49 from 333 games with a strike-rate of 71.22 and is the third Indian to accumulate more than 10,000 runs in ODIs.
His inclusion follows the recent struggles of Indian batsmen against short-pitched bowling, brutally shown up in the ICC World Twenty20 where Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan were troubled by bouncers from the West Indian fast bowlers. The problem continued in the subsequent ODI series in the West Indies.
Dravid played a key role in the success of Royal Challengers Bangalore during the IPL's second season, scoring 271 runs at a strike-rate of 115.81 as the team finished runners-up in the tournament held in South Africa.
The 16 members of the team touring the West Indies were also included, as are the regulars who missed that due to injury and fatigue concerns - Tendulkar, Sehwag, Zaheer and Suresh Raina.
Among the players who failed to make the cut are medium-pacers Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth. Irfan's last ODI was against Sri Lanka in February, while a back injury has troubled Sreesanth for more than a year since the inaugural IPL.
Probables: MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Munaf Patel, R Ashwin, M Vijay, Amit Mishra, Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni, S Badrinath, Ashish Nehra, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh, Wriddhiman Saha, Pankaj Singh.
Australia's first Test preparations have been thrown into chaos with Brett Lee complaining of pain down his left side. Lee was absent from Australia's training session on Monday at Sophia Gardens while going to London for scans on the injury.
A team spokesman said the extent of Lee's problem would be known by Monday night or Tuesday morning. However, just two days out from the first Ashes Test, he seems almost certainly out of the opening game and his future in the remainder of the series may also be under threat.
Team-mates are concerned about his fitness and were only told of the problem on Monday morning. "It's not looking great," one said.
Lee was Australia's best bowler in the tour match against England Lions in Worcester, claiming 6 for 76 in the first innings and displaying a mastery of reverse-swing. Prior to the injury, he seemed certain to partner Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle in Australia's pace attack in Cardiff, with Stuart Clark and Nathan Hauritz duelling for the final bowling position, but those plans could now be destined for the shredder.
"He has a sore left rib, but we won't know the extent of it until the scans are back," an Australian team spokesman said. "We're in a holding pattern until then."
Lee, Australia's most senior bowler with 310 wickets from 76 Tests, only recently returned to action after undergoing foot and ankle surgery following the Boxing Day Test against South Africa. The tour matches against Sussex and England Lions were his first outings outside of Twenty20 competition this year, and his display in Worcester last week had prompted many to feel that he was nearing peak form.
"I have not trained for 25 weeks to sit on the sidelines," Lee said last week, but it is looking the most likely scenario. If a replacement is required Doug Bollinger, the left-armer from New South Wales, is next in line after touring South Africa earlier in the year and making his Test debut in January.
The man who bowled Pakistan's first ball in Test cricket is no more. Khan Mohammad also took Pakistan's first wicket and fittingly perhaps, for what was to follow, his victim Pankaj Roy, was clean bowled.
Fazal Mahmood, Mohammad's new-ball partner in those early days, was the blue-eyed, impossibly debonair star, but Mohammad was a compelling foil. At his peak, players from the era even suggest that he was the more difficult to handle.
Certainly, he was a different proposition. Well-built, with a high-stepping approach, Mohammad was swifter but not really express. That most of his victims were bowled or leg-before was a reflection more of his accuracy than pace. His stock ball was one that came in, though he complemented it with clever changes of pace and some natural, uncomfortable lift.
Mohammad was a Lahori through and through, growing up as the son of a timber merchant in the old city. He took to the game early and quickly became a key fixture in the city's thriving club cricket scene, representing first Friends CC, before moving to the big daddy among Lahore clubs, Universal CC. The move was beneficial and brought swift recognition: he was picked for Northern India to play in the Ranji Trophy, pre-partition, at the age of 19.
Soon after Pakistan came into being, Mohammad quickly established himself as the premier fast-medium bowler of the land, taking 14 wickets in two unofficial 'Tests' on a tour of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1948-49. He joined Lahore's Islamia College as a History and Economics student and further honed his skills in the legendary and fierce rivalry with Government College, a rivalry that did much to ensure Pakistan were a competitive side when they stepped into international cricket.
Recognition came also in the form of selection for the first Pakistan Eaglets trip to England, in 1950. The Eaglets was a visionary venture by the BCCP (now PCB), sending a group of the most promising players in Pakistan on annual trips to take on county second XIs and club sides in England. It was a prototype of A team tours, designed, again, to keep Pakistan competitive when they made their Test debut.
Mohammad impressed enough on his first trip to attract the attention of Somerset and took five wickets in his only match for them, against South Africa. He would've gone on, but for Pakistan's imminent entry into Test cricket: he decided to come back to play against an MCC side in 1951-52, the contests that sealed Pakistan's Test status. It was a wise decision, Mohammad taking a five-for in the first drawn game in Lahore and following it up with eight wickets in the famous Karachi win; eight months later, the ICC granted Pakistan Test status.
His Test career was impressive, but brief and disrupted by injury. He didn't complete either of the two historic tours to India in 1952-53 or to England in 1954 - he was playing in the Lancashire leagues when called up to the latter tour (he was among the first players in Pakistan to look at the game as a profession). But when his fitness returned, so too did his form and, briefly, he entered the best phase of his career.
India's return trip in 1954-55 was particularly fruitful; a dull, meandering and result-less series saw Mohammad taking 22 wickets, mostly on matting surfaces. A career-best 6 for 21 followed against New Zealand and a heady peak was reached as he and Fazal took all 20 wickets against a strong Australian (Mohammad taking seven) in Karachi in 1956, Pakistan coasting to a nine-wicket win.
But a couple of listless, injury-ridden Tests later, against Gary Sobers and a rampant West Indies, Mohammad's career was over, 13 Tests yielding an impressive 54 victims. He tread a wandering post-cricket path thereafter, briefly coaching Canada in the 1960s and, after picking up some coaching qualifications, working intermittently on pace camps in Pakistan. Attending one summer camp, in 1984, was the gangly, still unheard-of Wasim Akram. He worked with the Pakistan board in various capacities, though some might complain, it wasn't often enough.
He spent much of the latter half of his life in England though he was a regular visitor to Pakistan and was often seen at Gaddafi Stadium on match days. He was never short of advice for fast bowlers young and old, rookie and veteran and, on balance, it was advice they would do well to adhere to.
Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, said Pakistan cricket had lost a valuable asset and passed his condolences to Mohammad's family. Mohammad is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.
Spin bowling in Australia is currently worse than the economy, stuck in a depression with no immediate signs of recovery. The situation is so grim that for the third time in four Tests Australia may not pick a specialist slow bowler on Wednesday and instead will rely on three batsmen who double as part-time twirlers to quicken up the over-rate and burgle a breakthrough.
For the previous four Ashes tours spin was Australia's major weapon, with Shane Warne removing 129 home batsmen with his mystifying variations. He retired after the 5-0 triumph in 2006-07, a series England supporters don't seem to remember, and since then Australia's selection panel - and opposition batsmen - have demolished more contenders than Mike Tyson in his prime.
High expectations from supporters, selectors and team leaders are ruining a generation of moderate talent that would have been well suited to most eras of Australian cricket. The problem is the country has had two golden ages of spin bowling and everyone is measured against the most recent glory days. Stuart MacGill kept Warne company in the 1990s and 2000s, while Bill O'Reilly and Clarrie Grimmett were even more frightening for batsmen in the lead-up to World War II. Two pairs of the greatest leggies in history arrived at the same time.
Apart from Richie Benaud, the country's second-most successful spinner with 248 wickets in the 1950s and 60s, and the offie Hugh Trumble, who toiled from 1890 to 1904, no other Australian tweaker has more than 140 Test victims. This is not the sort of standard that qualifies the country as a perennial spin-bowling force.
Instead of where have the good spinners gone, the question should be how did a pace nursery produce so many slow-bowling greats? Grimmett came from New Zealand and practised for a decade before debuting aged 33 and O'Reilly was a tough man from the New South Wales bush who pushed the ball through like a medium-pacer. Until Warne sped into the side - arriving, appropriately, in a Porsche - O'Reilly was unchallenged as the country's best spinner. MacGill ripped the ball more than Warne but with less control, crossing the country from Western Australia to more friendly surfaces in New South Wales, and prised 208 Test wickets, usually during his high-profile partner's absence. Had he been born 10 years later there would be no talk of downturns and no-turns.
After Warne exited the Test scene in the first week of 2007, MacGill was the initial replacement before knee and wrist problems allowed Brad Hogg to come in for the India series. By the end of that summer Hogg had retired and MacGill joined him two Tests into the West Indies tour. Beau Casson, a chinaman bowler like Hogg, was the back-up on that trip and played the final match, returning an encouraging 3 for 86 in the second innings. Only the selectors weren't impressed: he was overlooked for the India tour, was dropped briefly by New South Wales and is trying not to go troppo this winter in Northern Territory club cricket.
The legspinner Bryce McGain, then 36, was called for the India trip before returning home for shoulder surgery and a surprisingly quick recovery. His moment of glee arrived in the final Test in South Africa, but it soon became wretchedly unforgettable as he gave up 0 for 149 off 18 overs. Back in the subcontinent the rookie Jason Krejza was left to jostle for a starting place with Cameron White, who considers himself a batsman who bowls occasional legspin. White played all four Tests with little success and Krejza balanced 12 wickets on debut with 358 runs to become the next hope. After an ankle injury and another Test in Perth, he was sent back to Tasmania and gathered 11 wickets at 50.72 in four Sheffield Shield appearances, figures that were similar to those earning him a spot in the top team.
Nathan Hauritz was used three times and did enough not to be considered for the XI in South Africa, but following some useful one-day performances was the only specialist given one of 25 national contracts. A berth on the Ashes tour followed along with some heavy punishment in both the tour games, although he was able to deliver a dozen economical overs as the game against the England Lions wound down. However, his lack of conviction leaves Marcus North, Michael Clarke and Simon Katich expecting greater roles in Cardiff and throughout the series.
Top Curve
Australia's spin stats
* SPINNERS IN THE 2008-09 SHEFFIELD SHIELD
* Nathan Hauritz (offspinner, NSW): 16 wickets at 35.25 in 4 matches
Chris Simpson (offspinner, Qld): 16 at 41.68 in 11
Aaron O'Brien (left-arm orthodox, NSW): 14 at 40.57 in 9
Jason Krejza (offspinner, Tas): 11 at 50.72 in 4
Dan Cullen (offspinner, SA): 10 at 77.70 in 5
Adam Voges (left-arm orthodox, WA): 9 at 27.22 in 10
Jon Holland (left-arm orthodox, Vic): 9 at 49.11 in 4
Cullen Bailey (legspinner, SA): 8 at 27.50 in 2
Beau Casson (left-arm wrist-spinner, NSW): 7 at 85.14 in 7
Bryce McGain (legspinner, Vic): 5 at 31.80 in 1
Dan Marsh (left-arm orthodox, Tas): 5 at 54.40 in 10
Cameron White (legspinner, Vic): 4 at 57.25 in 5
Daniel Doran (legspinner, Qld): 4 at 100 in 5
Aaron Heal (left-arm orthodox, WA): 3 at 90 in 2
Josh Mangan (legspinner, WA): 2 at 79.00 in 3
Xavier Doherty (left-arm orthodox, Tas): 1 at 87.00 in 2
* TOP 10 SPINNERS BY WICKETS
Shane Warne: 708 wickets, 145 matches, 25.41 average
Richie Benaud: 248, 63, 27.03
Clarrie Grimmett: 216, 37, 24.22
Stuart MacGill: 208, 44, 29.02
Bill O'Reilly: 144, 27, 22.59
Hugh Trumble: 141, 32, 21.78
Ashley Mallett: 132, 38, 29.84
Bruce Yardley: 126, 33, 31.63
Ian Johnson: 109, 45, 29.19
Arthur Mailey: 99, 21, 33.91
Bottom Curve
In the lead-up to the squad announcement Allan Border, a former selector, pushed for Jon Holland, a left-arm orthodox from Victoria with only five first-class games on his resume. Domestically, the spin situation is so bad that after Warne retired he was asked to speak to the state captains about how to use slow bowlers. The leaders expected all their spinners to have the control, turn and bluff of Warne. If anybody had told them that was impossible, they were ignored. When fours arrived in flurries the twirlers were replaced by the faster, more economical operators, then saved for an over before the interval or to give the main men a rest.
Three years ago Queensland's Daniel Doran took five wickets in their Sheffield Shield final victory and appeared on track to develop into the state's first national legspinning representative since Trevor Hohns, who retired after the 1989 Ashes victory. Jimmy Maher had more idea about haute cuisine than how to employ Doran, who scraped 10 wickets at 70.50 in a full campaign. He has been a worried fringe player ever since, appearing in four games last season for five breakthroughs and more pain.
Last month Cricket Australia hosted a spin summit at the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, where Warne told the attendees that slow bowlers must not be an afterthought. Once again, educating the captains was another key theme. "[Spinners] don't bowl after all the quicks have finished, and then [are told]: you have a bowl because no one can get a wicket," Warne said. "You can bring them on early."
One thing Australia don't miss is well-qualified coaches. Terry Jenner, who played nine Tests in the 1970s, was Warne's mentor and monitors the bumpy progress of Dan Cullen and Cullen Bailey in South Australia. Greg Matthews (61 wickets in 33 Tests) and Kerry O'Keeffe (53 in 24) offer advice in New South Wales; Ashley Mallett (132 in 38) has been a travelling consultant and Murray Bennett (6 in 3) is one of Hauritz's confidants. At the Centre of Excellence the spin coach is John Davison, a former state offspinner and Canada representative, and Warne and MacGill pop in to talk wrists and dip. But on tour Troy Cooley, the fast bowling mentor and swing expert, is in charge of the spinners as well.
Despite all of this knowledge, the lectures and the talk of giving slow men a proper go, the decision-makers start to shiver after a couple of bad days. Without long-term faith in spinners at all levels, the quality of options will not become high enough for a sustained Test career. And that's not five wickets a Test, like Warne, but a couple in each innings and some venom on the final day.
It's a brutally tough discipline, which no longer seems understood in Australia, and one that has been mastered by only a handful of greats. There were 46 years between O'Reilly's last Test and Warne's first, leaving Australia to pray for a Benaud or Trumble to fill the gap sometime soon.
India clinched their fifth straight ODI series when rain forced the abandonment of the final match against West Indies in St Lucia, and the captain MS Dhoni believes it is tribute to his core unit.
"I think we really have a very good side," said Dhoni after India won the series 2-1. "It's a pleasure to win series out of the country. The bowlers took the initiative, we have a very good bowling attack and the youngsters who came in and got a chance have proved himself."
Dhoni's pace spearhead in the absence of Zaheer Khan, the young Ishant Sharma, struggled during the series - he took a pasting from Chris Gayle in the third ODI - but bounced back well to get Gayle for a second-ball duck in the final game. Dhoni credited a disciplined approach as key to Ishant's rejuvenated spell in the washed-out affair.
"He [Ishant] was concentrating more on what he needs to do rather than looking at the batsman. Today he was bowling in the right areas and there was a bit help in the pitch for the fast bowlers," said Dhoni. "In the earlier matches he was bowling one change but today he looked a totally different bowler with the new ball. Throughout the series if you see we batted first because there was something on offer for the fast bowlers."
Second to Dhoni's series-topping 182 runs was his deputy, Yuvraj Singh, with 168 including the sole century of the truncated series. Yuvraj, said, Dhoni was the backbone of India's batting order. "Coming in at No. 4 he always takes up the responsibility and sets up the platform for the batsmen down the order to contribute. When he sets himself up, you can rest assure he is in for a big score."
Gayle rued the fact West Indies did not have a chance to square the series. "You can't really do anything in such weather conditions," he said. "We are looking forward to Bangladesh right now. We need to go back to the drawing board ahead of that series. [Runako] Morton's return to form and Darren Bravo's introduction to international cricket were the positives that have come out of the series."
Shane Warne believes Australia would be making a serious mistake if they didn't play Nathan Hauritz in the first Test despite his ugly figures in the two tour matches. There is a strong chance Australia will name a four-man pace attack for the opening Ashes Test, despite the possibility of England taking in two spinners.
Warne said Graeme Swann, Monty Panesar and Hauritz would have enormous roles to play over the next week in Cardiff, where the pitch is expected to help the slow bowlers. First, Hauritz must win the backing of the selectors following his overall haul of 2 for 260 in the games against Sussex and England Lions.
"Whatever the speculation, Hauritz has to play for Australia, especially at Cardiff, with Marcus North, Simon Katich and Michael Clarke in support," Warne wrote in his column in the Times. "I actually think this is England's best chance of winning because of the conditions. Edgbaston may favour them as well, but I think Lord's, Headingley and the Oval will suit Australia.
"There isn't a lot between Hauritz and Swann. The difference is in their attitude. Swann has his confidence up and has been bowling pretty well lately in spin-friendly conditions against the left-handers. Hauritz has been finding his way in England and is trying to cement his spot in the team. Self-belief is very important."
Panesar's inclusion is not yet certain and Swann, who has never played against Australia in a Test, ODI or Twenty20 international, will be England's first-choice spinner at Sophia Gardens. Warne said Swann had the potential to frustrate the Australians and their tactic must be to attack him immediately to dent his confidence.
"Swann's character could really get under the skin of the Australians and if I was the England captain, I would give him full licence to be himself," Warne said. "He isn't to everyone's taste. If he is dictating terms, he will have a strut about him and that arrogance and cockiness will be obvious. In that state, he could disrupt Australia's rhythm.
"But when his confidence is down, as with all players, he is not so effective. I think Australia have to try to bring him down to size by taking him on straight away. Michael Clarke has a key role there because he is our best player of spin. His footwork is top-drawer and he could knock Swann seriously off kilter."
Warne also said England had erred by leaving Steve Harmison out of their squad, particularly after his short-pitched successes against Phillip Hughes during the warm-up game. Warne said having a varied attack could be a key during this series and while Australia had a solid mix, England had missed an opportunity by omitting Harmison.
"He does offer something different," Warne wrote. "When I think back to 2005 - which I don't do unless I have to - what stands out is the variety in the England attack: right-arm swing from Matthew Hoggard, pace and bounce from Harmison, reverse swing at speed from Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff angling it in awkwardly to the right-handers.
"Both sides will be comfortable with their batting but more concerned about how to take 20 wickets. I do think that Australia have bases covered in the pace department, with Mitchell Johnson bowling left-arm and swinging it back into the right-hander to work with the hustle and bustle of Peter Siddle, with Brett Lee swinging it at 150kmh." (Crazycricinfo staff)
Another session, another exercise in evenness. And at another break, neither team sits in clear ascendancy. The nightwatchman Abdur Rauf looked like frustrating the Sri Lankan medium-pacers into tiring down on a hot and humid day, but they struck to remove both Rauf and Younis Khan to reduce Pakistan to 80 for 4. From there on, though, Mohammad Yousuf and Misbah-ul-Haq negotiated the rest of the session in a sound manner to restore the balance in the contest.
Angelo Mathews became the second debutant in the match to take a wicket in his first over, removing Younis just before the drinks break, but it was during the toil of the first hour that Sri Lanka kept Pakistan from running free. After two overs from Ajantha Mendis right at the top, both Nuwan Kulasekara and Thilan Thushara gave the batsmen a tough time. Playing and missing, prodding and nudging, Younis and Rauf survived and put together a sizeable partnership. What worked for them was that there wasn't as much seam movement as yesterday.
It was Rauf who, surprisingly, took the lead. By the time Younis cut Kulasekara for three in the sixth over - his first confident shot of the innings - he had faced the same number of deliveries as Rauf, 32, but scored 10 as opposed to Rauf's 19. Rauf showed the tendency to play inside the line of the ball, but the fatal edge came only after the two had added 50 for the third wicket, 31 of which Rauf contribued.
Just before the first hour turned over, Kumar Sangakkara brought Mathews on and Younis played at a wide delivery to end an unconvincing innings. Luckily for Pakistan, Yousuf and Misbah were more confident and comfortable than the men they replaced.
Yousuf did have three shouts against him early on in the piece, but wasn't close to getting out to any. He looked to counter Thushara's swing by moving outside the line of off stump, and a couple of flashy shots there got him boundaries too. Misbah, in his brief unbeaten stay, looked the most comfortable batsman on this pitch. He was neither beaten nor keen to hit the bowlers off rhythm. A statement of intent was issued to Mendis, though, when Misbah read a googly early and lofted him over midwicket.
Mendis didn't look like he had settled into any sort of rhythm, giving 22 in his five overs. Misbah and Yousuf had added 40 for the fifth wicket in 12 overs.