PAK vs SL 1st Test: On Wednesday (11 November), on the third day of the first Test match being played between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Sri Lanka made a comeback in the match by batting brilliantly. By the end of the day's play, Sri Lanka has scored 404 runs at the loss of 4 wickets in its first innings and the team is now just 30 runs behind Pakistan's first innings score.
Sri Lanka advanced its innings to 114 runs for 3 wickets on the third day. Dhananjay de Silva and captain Kusal Mendis batted brilliantly and troubled the Pakistani bowlers a lot. So far, there has been an unbeaten partnership of 249 runs in 365 balls for the fifth wicket between the two batsmen. Dhananjay de Silva remains at the crease after scoring 167 runs in 241 balls, while Kusal Mendis has also completed his century. He is unbeaten after scoring 117 runs in 188 balls.
On the third day, Pakistan's bowlers could only get the wicket of Kamindu Mendis. He was out after playing an innings of 58 runs in 131 balls. After this, Dhananjay and Kusal took charge of the innings and did not allow any more wickets to fall till the end of the day's play. Now Pakistan will have to dismiss both these batsmen as soon as possible on the fourth day, so that Sri Lanka can be prevented from taking a big lead in the first innings.
Earlier, Pakistan had declared its first innings at 434 runs. Saud Shakeel had scored the highest score of 93 runs on behalf of the team. He played a patient innings facing 199 balls. Apart from them, Tayyab Arif contributed 57 runs and Arafat Minhas contributed 52 runs. Captain Babar Azam also played a half-century inning of 50 runs.
At present, Pakistan's lead in the match is only 30 runs and Sri Lanka's two batsmen are well placed on the crease. In such a situation, the fourth day's game is going to be very important for both the teams.