Akhtar gives Pak upperhand

Peshawar, March 6: Speed king Shoaib Akhtar took 5-75 as Pakistan gained the upperhand on the second day of the second cricket Test agains...

Peshawar, March 6: Speed king Shoaib Akhtar took 5-75 as Pakistan gained the upperhand on the second day of the second cricket Test against Sri Lanka, here today.

Pakistan, having lost their last four Tests, finished the day at 67-1 with skipper Saeed Anwar on 37 and Yousuf Youhana on three.

Earlier, Sri Lanka’s innings was wrapped up for 268 with Marvan Atapattu top-scoring with a dour 75 scored in 348 minutes from 254 balls.

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Akhtar struck a vital blow after Lunch by bowling Atapattu through sheer pace.

Akhtar bowled with venom and took three wickets in 21 deliveries to put the brakes on the visitors.

Anwar and Aamir Sohail gave Pakistan a sound start of 54 before Sohail played casually against part time bowler Mahela Jayawardene and was caught in the slips for 22. Anwar was in good touch and hit seven delightful boundaries.

Scoreboard

Sri Lanka (1st innings): M Atapattu b Akhtar 75, S Jayasuriya b Akhtar 30, R Arnold c Atiq b Razzak 2, A de Silva lbw b Sohail 33, M Jayawardene c Afridi b Sohail 36, T Dilshan b Arshad Khan 13, R Kaluwitharana c Atiq b Akhtar 4, C Vaas (not out) 17, P Wickremasinghe b Akhtar 0, R Pushpakumara c Atiq b Razzak 7, M Muralitharan b Akhtar 22, Extras (b1, lb8, nb20) 29. Total (in 109.3 overs) 268.
Fall of wickets: 1-58, 2-67, 3-121, 4-186, 5-207, 6-209,7-221, 8-223, 9-241.

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Bowling: Younis 5-0-20-0, Akhtar 24.3-3-75-5, Arshad Khan 45-18-70-1, Razzak 17-6-39-2, Afridi 7-0-31-0, Sohail 11-1-24-2.

Pakistan (1st innings): S Anwar (batting) 37, A Sohail c De Silva b Jayawardene 22, Y Youhanna (batting) 3, Extras (nb4, w1) 5. Total (for 1 wkt, 30 overs) 67.
Fall of wicket: 1-54

Bowling: Vaas 7-0-24-0, Pushpakumara 6-0-26-0, Muralitharan 11-6-9-0, Jayawardene 5-3-7-1, Jayasuriya 1-0-1-0.