Dimuth says: “Once we won the toss, we knew how good their fast bowlers are. We needed to see off that opening spell but we lost a few wickets. We bowled really well in patches, but then we start leaking runs. Overall, the bowlers did really well, but we dropped a few catches and that cost us. We have to assess what went wrong and come back again.” Plenty of praise for Dhananjaya, too. “We need to support him as his fellow batters.”
Babar Azam says: “When you win a match, it gives to confidence. All credit to these youngsters for the way they performed. We lost early wickets, and then the way Saud and Agha played totally changed the game. You need that kind of partnership, and that really pleased me. It’s not easy to bat in Galle, but the way Saud’s playing is outstanding, and I wish him luck for the next game.”
Saud Shakeel has been awarded the Player of the Match award “I was just trying to build partnerships, be positive and look for runs,” he says. “We are skilled in how to play the sweep and reverse sweep shots, and we knew we needed to execute it well. I’m from Karachi and I’m used to playing a lot of spin there.”
Pakistan vs Sri Lanka 1st Test Highlights 2023, Thursday 20-7. Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka, Galle International Stadium.
Toss: Sri Lanka chose to bat.
Pakistan team: Abdullah, Imam, Shan, Babar (capt), Sarfaraz (wk), Saud, Agha, Nauman, Naseem, Abrar, Shaheen
Sri Lanka team: Dimuth (capt), Nishan, Kusal, Angelo, Dinesh, Dhananjaya, Sadeera (wk), Ramesh, Prabath, Kasun, Vishwa
Head to Head In Test’s: 57
Pakistan Won: 21
Sri Lanka Won: 17
Pakistan Test Rankings: 6th
Sri Lanka Test Rankings: 7th
Form guide
(last five completed Tests, most recent first)
Pakistan DDLLL
Sri Lanka WWLLW
Match Timings: 2 PM GMT | 10 AM Local
Umpires – Alex Wharf, Rod Tucker
TV Umpire – Chris Gaffaney
Match Referee – David Boon
Reserve Umpire – Prageeth Rambukwella
Match number – Test no. 2511
