Watch: Naseem Shah‘s persistence paid dividends on the opening day of the second Sri Lanka-Pakistan Test, continually testing Angelo Mathews outside off before having him caught behind on the same channel.

Naseem finished with a three-wicket haul as Pakistan bundled out Sri Lanka for 166 before tea on the first day. One of Naseem’s victims was Mathews, Sri Lanka’s No.4, who joined Dimuth Karunaratne in the seventh over.

After a three-over opening spell, Naseem was brought back into the attack in the 11th over. He began by probing Mathews outside the off stump line from back of length and beating his outside edge. Two balls later, Naseem erred in his line and Mathews sent it to the long leg fence, but the bowler adjusted his radar quickly, beating Mathews again around back of length, outside the off stump to finish the over.

In the 13th over, Naseem continued the same nagging channel, keeping it on or just outside off and forcing Mathews to play at it. Off the fifth ball, the perseverance paid off, as Mathews, offered the same line, fell for the bait and edged behind.

Sri Lanka couldn’t recover from the early damage, and while Dhananjaya de Silva (57) and Dinesh Chandimal (34) forged a mini-recovery, the hosts’ middle and lower-order couldn’t do much against Abrar Ahmed’s guile, folding inside 49 overs.

Watch Naseem Shah dismiss Mathews here:

 

The beautiful setup of Naseem Shah to Matthews Maintaining a line n length to get an edge eventually 🔥 pic.twitter.com/aTTlSC8eJn

— Taimoor Zaman (@taimoorze) July 24, 2023