Watch: Prabath Jayasuriya trapped Pakistan captain Babar Azam leg-before during the second Test of the two-match series, at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo.
Trailing 1-0 in the series, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat in the second Test match, at the SSC, but their joy was short-lived. Naseem Shah (3-41) and Abrar Ahmed (4-69) bowled them out for 166 inside 50 overs. For the hosts, Dhananjaya de Silva top-scored with 57.
Pakistan began in breakneck fashion. Shan Masood blazed away to a 47-ball 51, and Pakistan ended the first day on 145-2. Only 10 overs of cricket was possible on day two, and Abdullah Shafique and Babar Azam pushed the score to 178-2.
Prabath Jayasuriya struck in the first hour of the third day. Bowling from around the wicket, he had been making one ball after another leave the right-handed Babar, before bowling the arm ball that held its line.
Babar played for the turn and missed, and the ball went on to hit him on the pad, and the umpire ruled him leg-before. Babar’s review turned out to be futile. He walked back for 39.
Jayasuriya has now dismissed Babar six times in a row in Test cricket. The streak began last year, when Pakistan played two Test matches at Galle. Jayasuriya bowled Babar in the second innings of the first Test match, and bowled and trapped him leg-before in the second.
In the first Test match of the ongoing series, also at Galle, Jayasuriya had Babar caught-behind and leg-before, before having him leg-before again at the SSC. He has now got Babar at least once in every Test match both men have featured in.
The world record for the longest streak lies with Shane Warne, who dismissed Ashwell Prince 11 times in nine Test matches, including a run of eight in eight.
In 2001/02, Warne had Prince caught by Ricky Ponting at Cape Town, and by Brett Lee and Mark Waugh at Durban. In 2005/06, he bowled Prince in each innings at Perth, had him caught by Ponting and Matthew Hayden at Melbourne; and trapped him leg-before in the first innings at Sydney.
Pakistan rode on Abdullah Shafique’s 201 and Salman Agha’s 132 not out to declare at 576-5, scoring at 4.29 an over. Asitha Fernando finished with 3-133 and Jayasuriya with 2-194.
At the time of writing, Sri Lanka are 129-4 in their second innings, with Angelo Mathews (30) and Dhananjaya de Silva (9) at the crease. Noman Ali (4-46) has claimed all four wickets. They need another 281 to make Pakistan bat again.
