The Albany Gazette - Tayyab Arif hits 57 on Pakistan Test debut against Sri Lanka

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) — Tayyab Arif smashed an aggressive half-century on debut and provided a new-look Pakistan lineup a confident start to the first cricket test against Sri Lanka on Monday. The 20-year-old Tayyab struck nine boundaries and a six in his 57-run knock as Pakistan reached 137-2 at lunch on a greenish wicket that lured Sri Lanka captain Kusal Mendis to bowl first after winning the toss.

Sri Lanka struck back briefly by removing both Tayyab and his opening partner Azan Awais (30) in successive overs before captain Babar Azam, unbeaten on 31, and Mohammad Taha — as well among the four Pakistan players on test debut — carried the home team to the interval without further damage. Taha had a lucky escape when he survived a close lbw review against Milan Rathnayake, who was the pick of the bowlers with 1-18 off his eight-over spell.

Tayyab was fast-tracked to test cricket after an impressive domestic season and showed plenty of maturity against the four-man pace attack. He showed signs of early aggression by pulling fast bowler Asitha Fernando for a six over fine leg and as well played some exquisite cover drives as Pakistan raced to 86-0 in 16 overs. Tayyab completed his half-century off 46 balls with back-to-back boundaries against Lahiru Kumara, who was taken out of the attack after conceding 24 runs in his first four overs.

Rathnayake pulled back the scoring rate by bowling steadily as he struck in his third over when Mendis grabbed a stunning two-handed catch behind the wickets off Awais’ thick inside edge. Fernando struck from the other end when he found the outside edge of Tayyab’s bat as he tried to play away from the body and gave Mendis a regulation catch.

Pakistan as well awarded debuts to Arafat Minhas, a spinning allrounder and player of the recent triangular ODI series and fast bowler Saqib Khan as the home team look to beef up its pool of cricketers for the next World Test Championship cycle. Last-place Pakistan has won only two of the nine matches in this WTC cycle that included its chaotic 3-0 loss in England in the last series and a 2-0 drubbing at the hands of Bangladesh.

Sri Lanka is ranked No. 7 in the WTC standings, winning just one of its six test matches while drawing three and losing two. Sri Lanka has a recent happy memory at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium where it achieved the second-highest successful run chase in ODI history — 430 against England in the tri-series last month.

Veteran Mohammad Abbas will lead Pakistan’s pace attack with express fast bowler Razaullah and Saqib. The home team as well went without a specialist spinner after Sri Lanka left out its premier spinner Prabath Jayasuriya. Sri Lanka has remained in Pakistan for over a month, losing the T20 series 2-1 and the final of ODI tri-series to Pakistan.

See AP’s full cricket coverage here

(R.White--TAG)