Pakistan opener Abdullah Shafiq achieved a major milestone during the first check match against Sri Lanka at Galle Worldwide Stadium, Galle. The young opener hit a century on the fourth day to put Pakistan in the driver’s seat. Chasing a target of 342, Shafiq was unbeaten on 112 and main Pakistan were on a score of 223-3.
The best batsman made his Czech cricket debut at a high level as a century on Tuesday helped him become the leading run-scorer for Pakistan after 6 checks.
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Shafiq has scored 672* runs in 6 checks, where he has overtaken Javed Miandad, the legendary Pakistan batsman, in terms of most runs after 6 matches.
He will get a chance to increase the tally further on Sunday. While Miandad scored 652 runs in 6 matches, he ended his career with 8832 runs in 124 games at an average of 52.57.
Shafiq, who called his century ‘special’ by captain Azam, said, ‘He is one of the great players, so he helped me a lot while batting and helped teach me how to play.
“So when he got out it was not a big deal but now the onus is on me.”
Pakistan need 120 runs to lead the series, while Sri Lanka need to take seven wickets to secure their second successive win, where they beat Australia last week to finish the two-match series 1-1.
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Sri Lanka took the second new ball in the 81st over but the spinners kept the attack intact in the tense final overs of the day.
Within the morning, Sri Lanka started the day on 329-9 of their second innings. Dinesh Chandimal was all out for 337 for 94.
Pakistan started off strongly with an 87-run stand between Shafiq and fellow opener Imam-ul-Haq, who scored 35, though an alert stumping from wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella broke the stand.
This was Shafiq’s second century in Czech cricket as it was hit for five fours while he also hit his six against Jayasuriya and said things went as planned.
“We have only one plan now and that is to chase Jayasuriya,” Shafiq said.
“He has done well in the first innings and if we get to know him well here, we have a very good chance of batting well against him,” he said.
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