Friday 15 August 2014 13:46, UK
Mahela Jayawardene made just four in the first innings of his final Test as Sri Lanka slipped to 261-8 on day one against Pakistan in Colombo.
Upul Tharanga eased the pressure on his place with 92 and contributed to an opening stand of 79 but it was Jayawardene the crowd had come to see, and they were left disappointed after he fell cheaply to Saeed Ajmal.
The spinner was permitted to play and bowl despite being reported to the International Cricket Council for a suspect action following the first Test, but was overshadowed on the day by seamers Junaid Khan and Wahab Riaz who shared the other seven wickets.
Sri Lanka, 1-0 up in the two-match series, chose to bat and Tharanga had a couple of alarms in the first over before settling with a boundary from the last ball.
Kaushal Silva followed suit in the second as the hosts made a solid start, pushing on to 28-0 from the first 10 overs.
The Decision Review System was briefly unavailable around an hour into play due to a technical issue affecting the cameras, but the only appeal up to that point had been a highly optimistic one against Silva. A Riaz delivery looped off his pad to short leg, with no edge and the lbw negated by the ball pitching outside the leg stump.
The half-century came up in the 17th over but the first serious scare came at the start of the 21st as Ajmal beat Tharanga but the ball hit wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed on the head and he was unable to complete the stumping.
At lunch, Sri Lanka were 69-0 from 27 overs with Silva on 38 and Tharanga 28 - but Silva never got going after the restart and fell for 41, caught behind pushing from the crease at Junaid.
Tharanga advanced to his half-century, completed from 114 balls with a cut at Riaz for his sixth four, but the same bowler then removed Kumar Sangakkara.
The left-hander was bowled off his thigh for 22, depriving him of the chance to bat with long-time friend and colleague Jayawardene who replaced him at the crease.
He did not last long, though, as having been dropped from the penultimate ball before tea he was trapped lbw in the first over after the resumption by Ajmal.
It was 177-4 when Tharanga fell eight runs short of his century as he flicked Riaz off his pads and was sharply caught by Azhar Ali. His 179-ball innings featured 12 boundaries.
Lahiru Thirimanne and captain Angelo Mathews put on 38 before the former departed for 20 - like Silva, caught behind off Junaid.
Riaz had Mathews caught behind for 39 to end the day with 3-66 - figures bettered by Junaid, who had 4-69 after the restored DRS helped him trap Niroshan Dickwella and Dilruwan Perera lbw in the same over.
