Sri Lanka reached 404 for 4 at stumps on the third day of the first Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi, leaving them 30 runs short of the hosts’ total with six wickets standing.
Dhananjaya de Silva was unbeaten on 167 and Kusal Mendis on 117, the pair still together at the close, the Daily Mirror reported at 6.50 p.m. Colombo time under the byline of Chathuranga Devapriya. Kamindu Mendis made 58 and Lahiru Udara 42.
Poor light ended play early.
Pakistan’s innings
Pakistan declared on 434 for 9. Saud Shakeel top-scored with 93, falling seven short of a century. Tayyab Arif made 57, Irfan Minhas 52, Muhammad Taha 51 and Babar Azam 50 — four half-centuries alongside Shakeel’s 93, but no hundred in the innings.
Debutants Saqib Khan and Muhammad Abbas have taken two wickets each against Sri Lanka.
Context
The two sides are meeting in a Test series for the first time in seven years. The first Test began on 9 November and is scheduled to run to 13 November, the opener of a two-match series.
With two days left and Sri Lanka yet to pass Pakistan’s total, a first-innings lead of any size would put the tourists in front for the first time in the match.
A discrepancy in the filing
The Daily Mirror’s report describes the wickets taken by the two debutants as falling in “Sri Lanka’s second innings”. That cannot be right alongside the same report’s other figures: a score of 404 standing 30 runs behind a total of 434 is a first-innings comparison. We have reported it as Sri Lanka’s first innings on that arithmetic, and flag the wording rather than passing over it.
Single source. ESPNcricinfo — the one verified scorecard source for Test cricket — has returned HTTP 403 to this desk on every attempt across several cycles. Searches of NewsFirst, Hiru, the Island, Daily FT, Daily News, EconomyNext and Colombo Gazette returned only earlier-round reports from this tour and older Rawalpindi Tests, including the 2019 fixture at the same ground. No second verified outlet carrying Wednesday’s close of play was reachable.
