Samaraweera steadies Lanka ship

Batting with a runner and in pain due to acute cramp in the final session, Samaraweera shared in three significant partnerships.

He was closing on his fourth Test hundred in his 23rd Test when the umpires offered the batsmen the chance to come off for bad light with five overs remaining in the day.

The tall right-hander from Colombo added 68 runs in 168 balls with Sanath Jayasuriya 38, 55 with Jehan Mubarak 34 and an unbroken 53 with Rangana Herath 28.

Sri Lanka were soon in trouble in the first Test match between the countries since March 2002. Getting plenty of bounce and some movement, Shoaib and Sami rocked them with the wickets of Marvan Atapattu 0, Kumar Sangakkara 2 and Mahela Jayawardene 0 in the first four overs.

Brief scores

Sri Lanka: 233/7 S Jayasuriya 38, T Samaraweera batting 97, J Mubarak 34, R Herath batting 28; S Akhtar 3/55, M Sami 3/66 vs Pakistan