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Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 1st Test Highlights: PAK win by 4 wickets to create history
Check highlights from Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 1st Test, Day 5 in Galle on Wednesday (July 20) here.
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Pakistan creates history
Pakistan defeat Sri Lanka by four wickets to win the first Test. Notably, it's a historic win for the Babar Azam-led side as they have pulled off the highest successful run chase in Galle. The visitors chased down the target of 342-run courtesy of opener Abdullah Shafique, who scored an unbeaten 160.
Play to resume soon
Great news, the covers have been removed. The weather has cleared quite a bit too. Play will resume at 14:30 local time.
Rain stops play
It's raining heavily in Galle and the match has been stopped for now. Pakistan are on the cusp of victory as they need just 11 runs with four wickets in hand. Abdullah Shafique has been the star batter for the visitors as he has scored an unbeaten 154 so far. Still, about four hours of play left. The good thing is they cover the entire ground in Sri Lanka.
Pakistan lose 4th wicket
Pakistan lose their fourth wicket as Mohammad Rizwan departs after being trapped in front of stumps by Prabath Jayasuriya. However, the wicket won't cause much trouble to the visitors as they need just 60 runs to win the match. Rizwan lbw b P Jayasuriya 40(74) [4s-2]
Mohammad Rizwan gets first boundary of day
And we are away as Mohammad Rizwan drives Ramesh Mendis through the covers for 4 to bring up the first boundary of the day. Rizwan moves along to 12 and Pakistan are 229/3 with Abdullah Shafique on 113 and need another 113 runs to win.
Abdullah Shafique leads Pakistan chase
Opener Abdullah Shafique is unbeaten on a century as Pakistan need 120 more runs to win on the final day of the 1st Test. Read all about it here.
Hello and welcome to our coverage of Day 5 of 1st Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Galle here.
Abdullah Shafique scored an unbeaten 160 to lead Pakistan to a record run chase and a four-wicket victory on Wednesday in a series-opening cricket test that went ahead despite a political and economic crisis in Sri Lanka.
His 408-ball innings contained six boundaries and a six in an innings, although he did get some reprieves.
Shafique was lucky to survive an LBW appeal when he was on four. He was dropped on 135 when Dhananjaya de Silva missed a return catch and again on 151 as Pakistan closed in on the win. A rain delay after lunch on Day 5 slowed down Pakistan's push for victory with 11 runs still required, but it really was only a matter of time.
The previous highest successful run chase at Galle was Sri Lanka's 268 against New Zealand in 2019. Together with overnight batsman Mohammad Rizwan, Shafique added 71 runs for the fourth wicket to help Pakistan inch toward the victory target of 342.
Rizwan eventually fell for 40 when Prabath Jayasuriya trapped him LBW, leaving Pakistan needing less than 70 runs with six wickets in hand. Sri Lanka also claimed the wicket of Agha Salman (12) in the last over before lunch, when Jayasuriya had him caught behind.
The wicket eased out with a lack of bounce helping the batters as the first test wore on. Sri Lanka didn't help its cause by spreading the field in a bid to stop boundaries and its defensive mindset only helped Pakistan's batters take singles.
As the Test was in progress, there was a protest organized just a few hundred meters from the stadium in Galle against the rising cost of living and corruption. The protests in the capital Colombo have been taking place on a larger scale and forced cricket officials to shift the second test, originally scheduled for Colombo, to Galle with a Sunday start.
The first Test finished not long after Sri Lankan lawmakers chose six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as president, defying the risk the vote would re-ignite turmoil among a public outraged by the South Asian country's dire economic, humanitarian and political crisis. The vote means Wickremesinghe, prime minister, and acting president, will succeed former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and finish the term ending in 2024 that Rajapaksa abandoned by fleeing the country and resigning earlier this month.