{"id":22082,"date":"2026-11-10T20:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T20:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/pakistan-seize-control-after-declaring-at-434-in-rawalpindi-test\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T20:30:55","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T20:30:55","slug":"pakistan-seize-control-after-declaring-at-434-in-rawalpindi-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/pakistan-seize-control-after-declaring-at-434-in-rawalpindi-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan seize control after declaring at 434 in Rawalpindi Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOHSIN ALI<\/strong><\/p>\n

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan tightened their grip on the first Test against Sri Lanka on Tuesday, declaring their first innings at 434 for nine before reducing the visitors to 114 for three by stumps on the second day at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka remain 320 runs behind and will begin the third day with Kamindu Mendis unbeaten on 40 and captain Dhananjaya de Silva not out on 22. Their unbroken stand helped steady the innings after Pakistan\u2019s pace bowlers struck early, though bad light forced an early finish after 27.1 overs.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Pakistan resumed at 281 for five and added strongly to their overnight total through important lower-order contributions. Saud Shakeel and debutant Ghazi Ghori put on 96 runs for the sixth wicket, giving Pakistan further control of the match.<\/p>\n

Saud, who had reached 57 on the opening day, continued to hold the innings together but fell seven runs short of a century. He was dismissed for 93 off 199 balls, caught behind off Asitha Fernando, and ended as Pakistan\u2019s top scorer.<\/p>\n

Ghazi played a useful hand of 48 before his dismissal brought another debutant, Arafat Minhas, to the crease. Minhas made an immediate impact, scoring 52 from 72 balls with nine fours and a six. His innings gave Pakistan further momentum before he was removed by Dilshan Madushanka. Razaullah then added a quick 10 before Pakistan declared in the 107th over.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s innings featured five half-centuries, including three by debutants. Tayyab Arif made 57, Mohammad Taha scored 51 and Minhas contributed 52. Captain Babar Azam also crossed fifty, while Saud\u2019s 93 was the highest individual score of the innings.<\/p>\n

For Sri Lanka, Fernando and Madushanka took three wickets each, sharing six wickets between them, but the visitors were unable to prevent Pakistan from building a commanding total.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s reply began poorly as Pakistan\u2019s fast bowlers found early success. Mohammad Abbas struck first, dismissing opener Pasindu Sooriyabandara for a duck, caught behind. Debutant Saqib Khan then removed Dinesh Chandimal for one to leave Sri Lanka under pressure.<\/p>\n

Lahiru Udara tried to repair the damage with a determined 42, but Saqib struck again, having him caught behind by Ghazi. The wicket left Sri Lanka in deeper trouble before Mendis and de Silva combined to resist Pakistan\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n

The pair added an unbeaten 49 runs for the fourth wicket, showing better application after the early setbacks. Mendis appeared confident in reaching 40, while de Silva was unbeaten on 22 when the umpires ended play because of fading light.<\/p>\n

Pakistan will enter the third day in a dominant position, holding a sizeable first-innings advantage with three Sri Lankan wickets already down. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, face a demanding challenge as Mendis and de Silva look to reduce the deficit and keep their side in the contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pakistan declared at 434 for nine before reducing Sri Lanka to 114 for three at stumps on day two of the Rawalpindi Test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22084,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22082\/revisions\/22084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}