Miracles do happen more than once

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Herath strikes – Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner Rangana Herath gets the verdict in his favour from umpire Simon Taufel as traps another hapless Pakistani batsman lbw on his way to a maiden five-wicket haul. The non-striker is Mohammad Aamer (Pic by Pushpakumara Matugama)

If Galle was sensational, the P Sara Oval was incredible as Sri Lanka scripted another miraculous victory over Pakistan on this occasion inside three days to win the second Test by seven wickets and with it take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-Test series.
No one in their wildest of dreams would have thought the five-day Test would end so abruptly 35 minutes before the close of the third day. Pakistan began the day strongly poised to run up a huge total and put the Sri Lankan batting under pressure on a wearing track late on the fourth and fifth days. But from a position of 294-2 at lunch, Pakistan collapsed in sensational fashion to 320 all out in a matter of 77 minutes leaving Sri Lanka the task of scoring 171 for a historic series clinching victory.
The Lankan openers Malinda Warnapura and Tharanga Paranavitana set the team towards achieving that goal with a partnership of 60 off 64 balls. After Paranavitana departed for 17, Warnapura needing runs behind him to retain his place in the team scored a timely half-century off 56 balls (7 fours, 1 six) before top edging a catch to the wicket-keeper. Skipper Kumar Sangakkara joined by his former captain Mahela Jayawardene then put the result beyond doubt with a stand of 60 off 57 balls. Sangakkara was dismissed for a well compiled 46, 11 runs shy of victory. But Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera saw Sri Lanka home with plenty to spare.
The win saw Sri Lanka complete a missing jigsaw in their Test record when for the first time they won a Test series against Pakistan at home. They had earlier won a series against every Test playing country on home soil with Pakistan being the only exception. Sangakkara in his first outing as captain has completed the cycle for his country in a sensational manner.
At Galle Pakistan lost eight wickets for 46 runs to collapse from 71-2 to 117. At the Sara Oval yesterday they lost eight wickets for 26 runs off 15.2 overs to crash from an imposing position 67 minutes into the third afternoon.
The collapse, the third suffered by Pakistan in four innings in the series was caused by the second new ball which was taken straight after the lunch break surprisingly by spinners Rangana Herath and part time bowler Tharanga Paranavitana who in the third over before the lunch break had captured the prize wicket of Younis Khan for 82. The Pakistan captain went for his famous reverse sweep shot and top edged a catch to wicket-keeper Dilshan. His dismissal ended a double century partnership of 200 off 321 balls with left-handed opener Fawad Alam. Younis scored his runs off 152 balls with the aid of seven fours. During his triple hundred against Sri Lanka at Karachi in March this year Younis employed the reverse sweep against the Lankan bowlers with great success. But on this occasion it led to his downfall and opened the floodgates for Pakistan.
Having two spinners bowling with the second new ball was another new ploy adopted by Sangakkara in his attempt to confuse the Pakistanis further to what ulterior moves he had up his sleeve. The move paid dividends as Herath who had gone to lunch with figures of one for 89 off 27 overs triggered the collapse by having Mohammad Yousuf lbw with his second ball. What happened in the next 67 minutes was pure mayhem which only Pakistan cricket can be associated with.
Many would pinpoint that it was Younis Khan’s dismissal that caused the Pakistan collapse. But even after losing their captain Pakistan were still in a position of strength with a strong batting line up to follow.
After one over from Paranavitana with the second new ball Nuwan Kulasekara produced a brilliant post lunch spell getting the ball to swing dramatically to capture four wickets for six runs off 6.4 overs. Herath from the other end proved an ideal foil taking four for 10 off eight overs helped by the extra bounce and mixing his arm balls with sharp turn as the Pakistani batsmen floundered against swing and spin.

When the tenacious debutant Fawad Alam fell for a marathon 168 scored off 259 balls in 384 minutes (15 fours, 1 six) with the score at 303 - caught by Warnapura at forward short leg off Herath, the writing was on the wall for Pakistan. It was only a matter of minutes before the innings was wrapped up with Herath being rewarded for his persistency with his maiden five-wicket haul in a Test innings. He finished with 5 for 99, but the match award was shared by Kulasekara who took four wickets in each innings for match figures of 8 for 58 and Fawad for his century on debut which almost put Pakistan in an impregnable position. The most impressive aspect of his batting was his temperament. He was assured in defence, never looked flustered or bogged down by the huge deficit, and worked the ball away impressively against both pace and spin.
The big question that needed to be answered at the end of the match was: what on earth did they feed the Sri Lankans and the Pakistanis during the lunch interval. What we witnessed in the afternoon session was the teams reversing their roles.