Pakistan needs 44 runs, hosts need 5 wickets to win 1st test

Pakistan was on the verge of pulling off the highest successful fourth-innings run chase at Galle after reaching 298 for five at lunch Wednesday, requiring just 44 runs to win the first cricket test against Sri Lanka.Abdullah Shafique was leading Pakistans chase, scoring an unbeaten 139 in almost eight hours at the crease.

Pakistan was on the verge of pulling off the highest successful fourth-innings run chase at Galle after reaching 298 for five at lunch Wednesday, requiring just 44 runs to win the first cricket test against Sri Lanka.

Abdullah Shafique was leading Pakistan's chase, scoring an unbeaten 139 in almost eight hours at the crease. His 363-ball innings has contained six boundaries and a six.

Shafique was lucky to survive an LBW appeal when he was on four and was dropped on 135 when Dhananjaya de Silva missed a return catch off his own bowling. Together with overnight batsman Mohammad Rizwan, Shafique added 71 runs for the fourth wicket to help Pakistan inch toward the victory target of 342.

Sri Lanka, desperate to make a breakthrough, used up all its reviews with little luck. Rizwan eventually fell for 49 when Prabath Jayasuriya trapped him LBW, leaving Pakistan needing less than 70 runs with six wickets in hand. Sri Lanka also claimed the wicket of Agha Salman (12) in the last over before lunch, when Jayasuriya had him caught behind.

The highest successful run chase at Galle is 268, set by Sri Lanka against New Zealand in 2019. The wicket also has eased out with a lack of bounce helping the batters. Sri Lanka didn't help its cause by spreading the field in a bid to stop boundaries and its defensive mindset only helped Pakistan's batters take singles.

As the game was in progress, there was a protest organized just a few hundred meters from the stadium against the rising cost of living and corruption. The protests in the capital Colombo are taking place on a larger scale and forced cricket officials to shift the second test, originally scheduled for Colombo, to Galle. The nation is going through its worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948.

Lanka Premier League (LPL), a franchise Twenty20 tournament with the participation of foreign players that were scheduled to start on Aug. 1, has already been postponed because of the crisis.