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An away victory is far more celebratory than one at dwelling. And thoughts you this one — by Pakistan towards Sri Lanka — is a clear sweep on the latter’s personal soil. Thus full marks to the Babar Azam males for outbatting, outbowling and outfielding the Sri Lankans within the two-Take a look at rubber that shattered information after information.
When Pakistan received the primary Take a look at — by 4 wickets — it marked their first win after a 365-day winless streak. Pakistan’s victory within the second Take a look at by 222 runs is their biggest-ever away from dwelling. The two-0 sequence end result marks Pakistan’s first clear sweep towards Sri Lanka in a Take a look at sequence since 1994. Noman Ali’s 7 for 70 within the second innings of the second Take a look at are one of the best figures for a Pakistan spinner towards Sri Lanka. By scoring a fifty within the second Take a look at, Saud Shakeel grew to become the primary participant within the historical past of Take a look at cricket to achieve fifty runs in every of his first seven matches. This fashion, Saud surpassed the likes of India’s Sunil Gavaskar, Pakistan’s Saeed Ahmed, West Indies’ Basil Butcher and New Zealand’s Bert Sutcliffe — all legends in their very own proper who scored 50 or extra in every of their first six Checks. There weren’t simply lots of however double lots of — by Saud Shakeel and Abdullah Shafiq — a notable signal that Pakistan now have batsmen of their lineup, aside from skipper Babar Azam, who’re blessed with method and temperament to remain on the wicket.
And to prime all of it, the victory takes Pakistan to the highest of the World Take a look at Championship desk, with 24 factors out of a potential 24 and 100 per cent PCT (factors for a group per factors contested) rating. Developing subsequent for Pakistan is a three-Take a look at sequence towards Australia in Australia in December-January, adopted by two dwelling Checks towards the West Indies in February-March 2024 and as many dwelling Checks towards Bangladesh in August-September 2024. The whitewash of Sri Lanka has put Pakistan in a formidable place for a victory within the 2025 World Take a look at Championship.
Revealed in The Categorical Tribune, July 29th, 2023.
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