The ball is full and straight and outswings a touch. Vishwa fails to put bat on it and here it is, the moment. Naseem Shah gets a fifer. He performs the Sajdah and is surrounded by his teammates. Pakistan has won the match and the series and cricket has, truly, come to Pakistan.
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A year ago, PCB was busy trying to get teams to come to Pakistan in the quest of getting the international cricket status back. World XI, Windies and Sri Lanka came to Pakistan but for the shorter format but a white ball series was yet to happen.
Even when Sri Lanka agreed for a white-ball series, their main players refused to come. That left serious doubts in the minds of people. But better late than never, Sri Lanka agreed to play a Test series in Pakistan.
First Test in Rawalpindi was mostly rain and some Babar Azam and Abid Ali brilliance attracted many fans in a nearly-dead Test at Rawalpindi. But the second one was expected to be result-yielding one as most domestic matches happening in Karachi in winter season ends in a result.
Pakistan won the toss in tge 2nd match and decided to bat first. Still, there was no sign of Fawad Alam in the playing XI only Yasir came in team in Shinwari's place.
Vishwa Fernando bowled a beautiful spell of swing bowling and got thr wickets of Shan Masood and Azhar Ali in three balls, both bowled by absolute beauts. Abid and Babar provided some resistance but it wasn't enough to stop Pakistan from doing a Pakistan and being all out on 191 on the first day.
The effects of that collapse were a bit reduced when, in answer, Sri Lanka was also 3 down at the end of day one, courtesy Abbas and Shaheen. The efforts of Chandimal and Perera resulted in Sri Lanka being ahead of Pakistan by 80 runs. It could've been a huge task for Pakistan but openers made sure against it and Pakistan were on 57 for no loss when the umpires suggested the light wasn't good for the play to continue.
Pakistan, fasten your seatbelts, batted for the whole day on day 3. Yes you read it right, there was a long time since that happened. And they lost only two wickets. Shan (135) and Abid (174) lead Pakistan into a dominant position from where Azhar and Babar made it more inclined in their favour. Azhar Ali suddenly found form and Babar continued on his merry ways to score another hundred.
The crowd cheered their newly-found hero, Babar Azam, with loudest of cheers. Even when Abid Ali sent a review upstairs, people started to welcome Babar on to the crease. That's what they were here for. And he didn't disappoint them.
Pakistan declared during the lunch on day 4 and gave themselves 5 sessions to bowl Sri Lanka out. Abbas provided the breakthrough in the 10th over and Naseem got one too in the next over. From there it was pretty downhill for the Sri Lankans. Only batsmen who showed some resistance were Dickwella and Oshada Fernando. But Dickwella departed in trying to sweep Harris Sohail only to see his stumps shattered. Naseem would end the day 4 on another wicket after trapping Chandimal in front earlier in the day.
He continued taking wickets as his first ball on day 5 was a dismissal and he ended the Test with a fifer. In first innings, it was Shaheen Shah and now it was Naseem Shah. A good outing for the Shahs. Yasir Shah would disagree, though.
Pakistan won the match but it is the feeling of Test cricket coming home that is more joyful. The sight of Pakistani batsmen in their caps getting cheered and the bowlers getting a full wave of noise when coming in to bowl is what Pakistan has been missing for a decade. Yes, they had great support in other countries, England as an example, but nothings tops this.
Pakistan ZindaAbad.
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