at Faisalabad...

13:30, IST
Meanwhile Sri Lanka and Pakistan have been fighting it out at Faislabad, and that match has had its fair share of twists and turns as well. In fact, more than. Both teams have had the upper hand, but good ol’ Jayasuriya edged his team ahead yesterday.
As I write this, the man has finished making a hundred runs in the day, already. He is on 236, and has totally pulverised the Pakistan attack that has not had Sami today. And to think they were talking of him having burned out a couple of months ago. He followed up that criticism with a century in the Asia Cup and since then he’s been making runs or taking wickets, at least something. Now this innings.

He is the type of guy who may not be amazingly consistent or have the best statistics. But when he makes runs he makes sure they dominate the opposition. In this case, he has brought his team into a winning position. With wickets falling around him, Pakistan could easily have had about 300 to chase. Now they will face over 400.

SRT has almost left behind such domination of bowling attacks. Sacrificed for more consistency, that's completely true. But the loss of excitement sometimes does pinch. Bottomline, though, he is in a team filled with strokemakers- barring the Wall-, so its makes sense to have him stonewall a bit, or at least be a little more circumspect.