Colombo/July/23: Temperatures have been rising in the island capital these days and you could see a few of Sri Lanka's bowlers getting hot under the collar as well at the Sinhalese Sports Club.
Dropped catches, missed stumpings and even a lucky break didn't help their cause on day three of this third Test that Sri Lanka might have felt at one stage they would be batting before the close.
Such shoddy efforts though have wrenched what chances Sri Lanka have had of making it a 3-0 success - after all, with the scorecard at 67 for four, and big names sitting with their feet up, you would fancy your chances.
Not that Pakistan, recipients of such careless fielding profligacy are complaining. They have an overall lead in the third Test of 366 runs with two days of play left and at 300 for five in their second innings will be looking to have Sri Lanka chase a 450-plus target sometime later on Thursday.
Shoaib Malik, as an example, gave a stumping chance to Kumar Sangakkara in his 90s after having narrowly escaped being caught in the gully earlier in his innings. But he went on at last to achieve his second Test century in a so far 26-match career. That it came from six when he hammered Rangana Herath high and wide explains how he was batting.
Elegant and neat and with smart foot and handwork, he has so far batted sensibly throughout his innings of 186 balls to reach an undefeated 106 at the close. His six off Herath was his second if the innings and has so far seen him share this partnership of 114 with Kamran Akmal, undefeated on 60.
The wicketkeeper too has survived a chance offered when trying to lift the ball over the covers but we had Thilan Samaraweera spilling a straightforward chance that had spectators bowing their head as if they had taken the catch.
It is the second century partnership of the innings which Shoaib has been involved: the first being 119 with Misbah-ul-Haq, whose innings of 65 helped the revival and saw Sri Lanka rue their fielding efforts which you wouldn't find in a friendly Sunday social game. Sure such things happen, but they were clumsy.
If before Shoaib joined Misbah the batting was circumspect, the last session of the day underlined a certain urgency, as the runrate reached more than four an over.
There has been a lot of criticism around the batting skills of Shoaib, who for a time was captain, but since handing over to Younis Khan has also struggled to put big innings together that had been expected of the 27-year-old. With Misbah he looked at ease and on more than one occasion two-stepped Herath.
There was a lot of powerful stroke play from Shoaib and Misbah and this continued in the partnership with Akram and led to an entertaining 132 runs in the last session of the day, in which 31 overs were bowled. It was here where Sri Lanka lost the plot and with Tillekeratne Dilshan ruled out with a fractured finger, it meant that Sangakkara had to take over the gloves for the first time in the series.
Initially the Misbah-Shoaib partnership was one of consolidation as the middle-order pairing needed to put a solid performance together and no one in the Pakistan camp can feel miffed over the runrate at the time. The side was in early trouble and an overall lead that was hardly inspiring. But their efforts paid off and as days two and three are normally the best days for batting, what there has been displays how patience and tight technique can work from strokeplayers as these.
Danish Kaneria, hauled up before match referee Alan Hurst over his use of bad language at Angelo Mathews was fined and cautioned and this took a little gilt off his five-wickets on Tuesday. Some things are best left unsaid.
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