The second-highest opening partnership of 278runs between Abid Ali and Shan Masood is turning the table in favour of hosts, taking the lead of 315 runs against Sri Lanka on a third day of second and final test match at National Stadium Karachi (NSK).

The third day of second test was completely dominated by Pakistan backed by the tons of opening duo Abid Ali (174) and Shan Masood (135) who broke many records on their way to a second-highest opening partnership of 278runs for Pakistan.

The biggest opening stand of 298runs in test was made between Aamir Sohail and Ijaz Ahmed against West Indies in 1997 at Karachi. All three highest opening partnerships were witnessed at NSK.

Following the biggest opening stands against Sri Lanka (previous was 255runs between Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer at Cairns in 2004), Pakistan convincingly overcame a deficit of 80 runs and took a lead of 315runs with eight wickets still in hand. Kumara sent both openers to the pavilion.

On a third day of a match, the wicket has not helped the bowlers' much and Pakistan would like to bat till lunch on fourth day of the match to take a lead of at least 400.

Abid's 321 run-count after his first three test innings (109*, 38 and 174) surpasses Zaheer Abbas's 318 runs (12, 27, 274) and became the most runs scorer in his first three innings in Pakistan and the third-most overall after Tips Foster (ENG) 355 runs, followed by Lawrence Rowe (WI) 336. Azhar (57) and Babar (22) are on crease.

Abid at a joint presser with Shan said: "I always try to bat with positive mind and strive to make partnership." He said that teammates had given a name of legend, which put more responsibility on my shoulder; adding that we both played first class cricket together and it really helped to play a 174 runs knock. Meanwhile, Shan said that we tried to put a target of 400 to 450 runs in order to avoid match dragging toward draw.

Scoreboard

Pakistan 1st innings 191 (Asad Shafiq 63, Babar Azam 60; L. Kumara 4-49, L. Embuldeniya 4-71)

Sri Lanka 1st innings 271 (D. Chandimal 74, D. Perera 48; Shaheen Shah Afridi 5-77, Mohammad Abbas 4-55)

==============================================
Pakistan 2nd innings
==============================================
Shan Masood c Oshada b Kumara              135
Abid Ali lbw b Kumara                      174
Azhar Ali not out                           57
Babar Azam not out                          22
Extras: (lb 5, w2)                           7
==============================================
Total: (for two wkts, 103 overs)           395
==============================================

Still to bat: Haris Sohail, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Rizwan, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi

Fall of wickets: 1-278 (Masood), 2-355 (Abid)

Bowling: Fernando 21-2-84-0, Kumara 22-5-88-2, Embuldeniya 36-2-136-0 (1w), Perera 17-1-63-0 (1w), De Silva 7-0-19-0

Toss: Pakistan

Umpires: Bruce Oxenford (AUS) and Joel Wilson (WIS)

TV umpire: Gregory Brathwaite (WIS)

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL).

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019