RAWALPINDI: Sonal Dinusha and Pavan Rathnayake scored anchoring half-centuries to give Sri Lanka ‘A’ a dominant 180-run lead over Pakistan Shaheens on the penultimate day of the second four-day match here at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.
At the stumps on day two, Sri Lanka were 157/4 with Dinusha and Rathnayake unbeaten on 64 and 51 respectively.
After acquiring a narrow 28-run lead, the touring side had been reduced to 46/4 before the unbeaten fifth-wicket partnership pulled them out of trouble.
For the Shaheens, Ahmad Bashir bagged two wickets, while Hussain Talat and Kashif Ali had made one scalp apiece.
Earlier in the day, the hosts resumed their first innings from 212/5 with a 98-run deficit and were bundled out on 287.
Hussain Talat (25) and Ghazi Ghori (15) could add 12 runs to their overnight sixth-wicket partnership and perished in quick succession to leave the home side reeling at 235/7.
Ahmed Safi Abdullah and Kashif Ali put on a crucial 53-run eighth-wicket stand to reduce the deficit.
Ahmed smashed five fours on his way to a 61-ball 39 before falling to Wanuja Sahan, who picked up his 12th first-class five-wicket haul returning figures of 5-74 in 27 overs.
Kashif, on the other hand, fell two overs later after scoring a gutsy 14, marking the end of Shaheens’ innings.
Besides Sahan, Chamika Gunasekara, Isitha Wijesundara, Nipun Dhananjaya and Dinusha chipped in one wicket apiece.
For the unversed, Pakistan Shaheens lead the two-match series 1-0.
