Dimuth and Shah shine at Pallekele

Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne hit a century, while Pakistani leg-spinner Yasir Shah had another rich haul as the decisive third and final Test began on a rousing note here on Friday.

The hosts, sent in to bat after Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq won the toss for the third time in a row, stuttered to 272/8 in their first innings by stumps on the opening day.

Left-handed Karunaratne anchored the innings with a dogged 130, his second Test century following the 152 against New Zealand in Christchurch last December.

Yasir ended the day with four for 77, taking his tally in the series to 21 wickets, the most by a Pakistani bowler in a three-Test rubber in Sri Lanka.

Yasir enabled Pakistan to keep the runs in check despite conditions favouring the batsmen on the evenly-paced pitch after the initial moisture on the wicket had dried up under the hot sun.

The series is locked 1-1 after Pakistan won the first Test by 10 wickets and Sri Lanka responded with a seven-wicket victory in the second match.

Pakistan secured an early break with the wicket of Kaushal Silva, who had scored 125 in Galle and 80 in Colombo.

This time Silva made nine when he was caught behind off left-arm seamer Rahat Ali, who was picked alongside Ehsan Ali and Imran Khan in a new-look pace attack for the decider.

The left-handed pair of Karunaratne and Upul Tharanga put on 91 for the second wicket on either side of lunch to lift the score to 106 for one, before three wickets fell for 31 runs.

Tharanga, who replaced Kumar Sangakkara for the match, made 46 when he edged Yasir to slip where an alert Younis Khan took a smart catch diving in front.

Lahiru Thirimanne (11) and captain Angelo Mathews (three) fell in successive overs from Yasir to mistimed drives as Sri Lanka slipped to 137/4.

Jehan Mubarak helped Karunaratne add 67 for the fifth wicket before he was stumped off Yasir for 25