5 things we learnt from the Sri Lanka - Pakistan Test series
Who doesn’t like three Test matches, all yielding results? And who doesn’t like each game throwing up a different hero, young and old, underrated and underestimated, ignored or tormented. The recently concluded Sri Lanka – Pakistan Test series was one of the most tantalisingly contested Test series in the subcontinent.It started with a stunning, almost unbelievable win by Pakistan and it ended with a similar, stunning, almost unbelievable win by Pakistan. Sri Lanka erased Pakistan’s lead in the second Test and looked like they were about to pull off a great comeback to take the series 2-1 after losing the first match. But that wasn’t to be. Pakistan’s old warhorses made sure they had enough in their tank to set their team up for their greatest fourth innings chase and probably one of their greatest victories away from home.It took close to a decade for Pakistan to win a series in Sri Lanka and the win has pushed them to No.3 on the Test rankings behind Australia and South Africa. That is some achievement. Interestingly, the Test series also offered some serious lessons for every cricket follower.
#1 Younis Khan is still Pakistan\'s saviour
Younis Khan scores read 47, DNB, 6, 40 and 3 in the five innings prior to the last. In the second innings in the Third Test, chasing 377 for victory, he scored 171* to shepherd Pakistan through its toughest and biggest fourth innings chase.
In doing so, he became the first man ever, to score five fourth innings Test centuries. He has a stunning average of over 60 in the fourth innings of a game, when historically, it is known that the conditions are toughest for batting.
Younis walked in when Pakistan were 13 for two after seven overs, having just lost their best batsman in form, Azhar Ali, with 364 still to get on a fourth-day pitch. Khan’s 271 ball knock had 18 fours but no sixes. Even though fluent and confident, he showed how it’s done, by cutting off the risk completely from his batting and yet, rarely missing out on opportunities to score.
The 37-year-old who played his 100th Test during this series now has 8814 runs at 54.07, just a few runs away from Javed Miandad to become the highest run-getter in Tests for Pakistan. He has 30 centuries to go with 29 half-centuries with one of the most splendid conversion rates in history of the game.