Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan celebrated Test cricket’s return to the country after a decade with an emotional 1-0 series victory over Sri Lanka at National Stadium here on Monday after teenager Naseem Shah sparkled to help the hosts score a 263-run win in the second and final match. With the win, Pakistan have climbed to number three on the ICC World Test Championship points table. Pakistan have grabbed 60 points for their victory over Sri Lanka in the Karachi Test to move to 80 points in the ICC World Test Championship points table. The two-match series, which began with a drawn Test in Rawalpindi, marked Pakistan’s first Test matches on home soil since the 2009 militant attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore. Pakistan secured the series win needing only 16 deliveries to claim the last three wickets en route to a victory. Naseem, who became the youngest pace bowler to take five wickets in an innings of a Test match, claimed two of the last three wickets as Sri Lanka, chasing 476 for victory, folded for 212. Naseem got rid of Lasith Embuldeniya with the first ball on the fifth day morning to be on a hat-trick. Vishwa Fernando denied him the feat but could not deny Naseem his five-wicket haul and fell in the quick’s next over. Oshada Fernando, whose maiden test century was the lone significant resistance in the Sri Lankan innings, fell to Yasir Shah, failing to add to his overnight score of 102. Abid Ali, who smashed a century in the drawn Rawalpindi Test and another in Karachi to finish the series as its top scorer, was adjudged player of the match as well as of the series. Abid was one of the four centurions in Pakistan’s second innings, only the second instance when each of the top four batsmen got a hundred in the same innings.

“Definitely we needed this performance. Special thanks to the Sri Lankan team and the Sri Lankan board from the bottom of our hearts” for touring Pakistan, elated home captain Azhar Ali said at the presentation ceremony. “They probably don’t know how much happiness they have given us by playing here … It was a special series for us and boys played special cricket.” He added: “It’s been a tough year for us as a Test team but coming here, playing at home and playing after a long time, it’s been obviously an emotional moment for us.” After a decade as Test nomads, Pakistan were unsure how to exploit their home advantage. “We had some doubts, how to win a Test match here as we haven’t played Test matches here for a long time,” said Azhar. “Now we have a decent idea how to win Test match in Pakistan…once we do well at home, we can take confidence to overseas.” Bowling coach Waqar Younis was elated with the victory but felt hosting the series mattered more. “It’s a very happy moment for the team and for all of us, for the entire country,” the former pace said. “It’s good that we won but more than that it’s that cricket has come back home. People love cricket…it’s good that they have come in numbers and they’ve shown the world that this is a safe place.”

A lot of coaxing and cajoling went behind organising the series, which marked Pakistan’s first tests on home soil since the 2009 militant attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore. Top Sri Lankan cricketers opted out of a limited-overs series in Pakistan earlier this year and agreed to travel for the test series only after promised watertight security. “We dominated the first two days but Azhar and his team came back very strongly and put us under pressure,” Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne said. “They batted really well and we lost our patience as well.”