Sri Lanka are on the move after a nervy start on Day 2 of the first Test against Pakistan at Galle. Day 3 will see Sri Lanka coming out to bat with Kaushal Silva and skipper Angelo Mathews, who would look to keep the scoreboard ticking without taking much risk.
Day 1 of the Test match was completely washed out due to rain and the playing conditions were revised by the match officials. The follow-on score will now be 150 runs instead of the regular 200 runs. The play on the remaining three days will be starting 15 minutes early as it had become a four-day match after the first day was washed out.
The second day of the first Test also saw a delayed start as it was raining early in the morning. As a result, the first session of the play was curtailed. Pakistan had won the toss earlier and had asked Sri Lanka to bat first. Wahab Riaz and Junaid Khan were generating decent pace, but they were unable to get much movements off the deck. In spite of that, they were troubling the Sri Lankan openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva.
Silva was dropped by Yasir Shah when the former was batting at six runs. Karunaratne was scratchy right from the start. He was also caught off a no-ball from Riaz initially. Eventually Karunaratne was dismissed by Riaz managing to score only 21 runs.
This made Kumar Sangakkara to come out at the centre. Sangakkara's brilliant run of form with the bat continued as he scored 52nd half-century on Thursday. But he got out too soon after he reached that landmark and that would have provided a lot of relief to Pakistan skipper Misbah ul Haq's side as they were aware of Sangakkara's record against them.
Lahiru Thirimanne was dismissed by Mohammad Hafeez soon after Sangakkara was sent back by Riaz. Amid all this action, Silva stood strong and kept on playing his natural game. He ended the day at 80 and would look to score that big hundred on Day 3. Sri Lanka still have a lot of batting to come. If Pakistan can manage to pick a few early wickets on Day 3, then the momentum will suddenly shift from the hosts to the visitors. At this moment, the Test match is nicely poised. An interesting day of Test cricket is on the cards only if it does not rain.
Where to Watch Live:
The third day of the first Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan is scheduled for 9:45am local time (9:45am IST, 4:45am BST, 3:45am GMT) start with the live coverage in India and Sri Lanka on Ten Cricket and Ten HD. The live streaming option will be available on Tensports.com.
Cricket fans in Pakistan can stream the match live on GeoSuperTv.
Viewers in the US can watch the match live on Willow TV and stream the game on Willow TV Online.
