Rangana Herath again put Pakistan in a spin with a five-wicket haul but half-centuries from Sarfraz Ahmed and Ahmed Shehzad guided the tourists to 244 for six at the close of the second day of the second Test on Friday.
Pakistan trail Sri Lanka, who lead the two-Test series 1-0, by 76 runs after the hosts were bowled out for 320 in their first innings.
Herath took the wickets of experienced pair Younis Khan and captain Misbah-ul-Haq in seven balls after tea to reduce Pakistan to 140-5, but Asad Shafiq (42) and Sarfraz (66 not out) added 93 for the sixth wicket before Herath separated them towards the end of the day.
He bowled Shafiq between bat and pad with an arm ball as the batsman prodded forward to finish the day with figures of five for 98.
Herath is the leading wicket-taker in Test cricket for the calendar year with 47 wickets. Playing in his 17th test against Pakistan, Herath has taken 79 wickets against them.
“I don’t do anything special,” Herath said when asked about his phenomenal record against Pakistan. “Even with other countries I stick to the basics, but I realised Pakistanis don’t play very well against me.
“We need to get them out for under 300 then we have a 20 plus lead and if we can get more runs we can put them under pressure,” Herath said.
“We need to bat very well in the second innings. There is some help for the spinners but not that much, still it is the second day. By the third and fourth days it should take spin.”
Herath made his debut in 1999 and wondered what he might have achieved if he hadn’t been blocked from a regular place in the side by the great Muttiah Muralitharan, who retired in 2010 with a world record haul of 800 wickets.
“I missed some cricket at the beginning,” Herath said. “If you see the last five to six years, I have taken more than 200 wickets, and that’s a big achievement as a spinner.”
Sarfraz reached his third consecutive half-century of the series, the first Pakistan player to do so, after successfully reviewing a lbw dismissal off Dilruwan Perera when he had made 24.
“I played my natural game and this is what exactly (coach)Waqar Younis told me to do,” said Sarfraz.
“We are here to play positive cricket and to win. My immediate target tomorrow is to run down the deficit on us and revert the pressure back on Sri Lanka.”
Earlier, Pakistan left-arm paceman Junaid Khan completed his fifth five-wicket haul against Sri Lanka but not before the hosts’ tailenders frustrated them to add 59 valuable runs in the morning.
Pakistan’s hopes of finishing off the Sri Lankan innings quickly were stalled by Dhammika Prasad (13), Herath (17) and Chanaka Welegedara (27 not out).
Younis recorded his 100th Test catch when he snapped up Herath at slip to end the Lankan innings.
