After Sri Lanka‘s skipper won the toss, they decided to bat, and likely put a huge total of 378 runs on the board. On the first day itself, they were 300 up even after losing 6 wickets. Pakistan bowlers tried their hearts out but couldn’t manage to turn the clock towards them. Galle, which has traditionally been a bowler-friendly wicket ditched the Pak bowlers. Mohammad Nawaz, on this occasion, stated that the pitch hadn’t helped the bowlers to let the host score a bit little.
Nawaz said,
“I think we let them score a little bit too much. The pitch isn’t like the first Test; it wasn’t turning and the pitch was slow. I think we would have been better served by squeezing the score rather than attacking. Because the pitch was very slow and the wickets weren’t coming as easily, you needed to work especially hard for them. So if we’d restricted their score, perhaps the wickets would have come easier.”
“In cricket, anyone can drop catches”, defends Mohammad Nawaz.
Pak fielders weren’t up to the mark on the field. Nevertheless, it’s unlikely to see Babar Azam failing as a fielder. Babar, as a batter had actually led his team from the front. He scored a blissful 100 in the 1st Test’s first innings, thus guiding Pakistan a step ahead towards victory. Though he hasn’t been shining enough with the bat, the drop catch was disappointing. In the 52nd over, the skipper gave life to Angelo Matthews. Mathews played a mistimed cover drive when the left-arm spinner tossed the ball up. However, Babar, who was standing at extra cover, failed to grip the ball. However, it hadn’t cost Pakistan much as Mathews left seven overs later being caught to keeper Rizwam in Nauman’s ball.
In the 82nd over, Babar repeated the same by dropping Niroshan Dickwella at the slip. Dickwella did a cameo of 24 runs but left edging Naseem Shah’s ball.
Though none of the missed chances cost Pakistan that much, still Babar’s fielding is in question. However, Mohammad Nawaz backed his skipper. He said,
“In cricket, anyone can drop catches. It’s very rare that it happens to Babar, but if those catches had been taken then we might have been able to restrict them to a lower score. Oshada attacked the spinners in the morning and the scoring happened quickly, and then when Chandimal and Mathews struck up a partnership, that was very effective for them.”
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