Saud Shakeel missed out on a century for the second successive time but his gritty 97 foiled Sri Lanka’s push for a win on the fifth and final day in the drawn first cricket test against Pakistan on Friday.

It was the first drawn game for Pakistan in its disappointing campaign in this World Test Championship cycle, losing seven and winning two of its previous nine test matches.

Shakeel, who made 93 in Pakistan’s first innings of 434-9 declared, dug in for almost entire final day before he was bowled by Lahiru Kumara after facing 210 balls late on the fifth and final day.

By that time, the home team had reached 284-8 for an overall lead of 272 as the players shook hands and the match was called off.

Sri Lanka’s pace bowlers had rattled the top order under overcast conditions in the first session by reducing Pakistan to 125-5, but Shakeel showed lot of temperament and shared a match-saving 92-run stand with Ghazi Ghori, who made 35, to deny Sri Lanka unlikely win.

Milan Rathnayake (3-47), Asitha Fernando (2-35) and Kumara (2-65) had given Sri Lanka a sniff before Shakeel stood firm and saved Pakistan from going down in the two-test series.

The second test will be played at the same Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium from next Tuesday after it was relocated to Rawalpindi due to increase in the smog level at Lahore.

Steely Shakeel stands firmPakistan’s batters had stumbled against Sri Lanka captain Kusal Mendis’ innovative field setting in the first session which was disrupted by 20-minute stoppage of play due to bad light.

Skipper Babar Azam scored 34 and Salman Ali Agha made 13 before both fell into Mendis’ fielding trap and offered catches at short backward square leg on a second successive overcast morning at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, where 117 overs were lost due to bad light and rain during the first four days.

Pakistan, which curtailed the Sri Lankan first-innings lead to 12 on the back of an inspiring seven-wicket debut by fast bowler Saqib Khan, led by just 139 runs at lunch and had given Sri Lanka a chance.

Shakeel successfully overturned an lbw decision against him early in the innings and also got a nasty blow on the shoulder off Dilshan Madushanka’s short ball as the Sri Lankan seamers got plenty of seam movement in favorable conditions.

Resuming on 57-1, Pakistan had a disastrous start to the final day when both overnight batters, Azan Awais and Mohammad Taha, were dismissed without adding to their scores of 22 and 24, respectively.

Awais flashed hard at Kumara’s first ball and was caught at slips while Fernando’s delivery seamed enough to get the outside edge of Taha’s bat from the other end.

Babar added 50 runs with the defiant Shakeel and struck six boundaries with his trademark cover drives and straight drives but yet again couldn’t convert a good start into big innings as his century drought in test matches was extended to 42 innings.

Babar also survived two chances. Kamindu Mendis grassed a regulation chance in the second slip when Babar was on 22 and then had a close lbw call go in his favor on an umpire’s call before he fell into Mendis’ trap and gave a simple catch to Lahiru Udara.

Rathnayake executed the fielding plan well with another short ball to Agha and Pasindu Sooriyabandara brought up a spectacular catch before Shakeel and Ghori stood firm.

New fast bowler Saqib Khan’s seven-wicket haul led Pakistan’s comeback against Sri Lanka on a rain-affected day four of the first cricket test on Thursday.

Saqib’s dream figures of 7-130 on debut helped Sri Lanka collapse to 446 all out after resuming on a formidable 404-4. Sri Lanka eked out a first-innings lead of 12 runs.

Pakistan reached 57-1 in 21.2 overs of its second innings midway into the second session when stumps was called at 3:05 p.m. for bad light followed by rain. Pakistan leads by 45 runs at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

At the crease were Azan Awais, on 22 after he was dropped on 17 by captain Kusal Mendis behind the wickets, and Mohammad Taha, one of Pakistan’s four debutants who has followed his first innings half-century with 24 not out off 55 balls.

The 31-year-old Saqib made full use of perfect bowling conditions on the fourth morning with incisive swing to rattle Sri Lanka. The visitor lost its last six wickets for 42 runs in a seven-wicket first session after only one wicket fell on day two.

Saqib became only the fourth man after Mohammad Nazir, Mohammad Zahid and Abrar Ahmed to grab seven wickets in an innings on test debut for Pakistan.

“My strength is to bowl out-swingers and I did exactly that today under favorable overcast conditions,” Saqib said.

“Yesterday was a bad day for us because we couldn’t bowl the way we would have liked to, but coach Mike Hesson told us in the dressing room that if we hit the off stump line and bowl out-swingers we will get wickets.”

Saqib kisses the pitchThe greenish pitch on which Sri Lanka lost only Kamindu Mendis on Wednesday sprung to life in on Thursday in overcast conditions.

In a relentless eight-over spell, Saqib grabbed 5-25 as centurions Dhananjaya de Silva and captain Kusal Mendis were dismissed inside the first 15 minutes.

Their 249-run stand was broken by Saqib off the fifth ball of the morning when he found the outside edge of de Silva, who couldn’t add to his overnight 167.

Saud Shakeel, who dropped de Silva on 38 on day three, once again spilled a low catch off Mendis. But two balls later wicketkeeper Ghazi Ghori brought up another spectacular diving catch off Saqib’s probing delivery outside the off stump to end the Sri Lanka skipper’s knock on 119.

Sri Lanka rising star Sonal Dinusha, who has three centuries and two half-centuries in his previous five test matches, made 20 before he went for an expansive drive against Saqib and edged to the slips cordon. With his fifth wicket, the pacer kissed the turf.

Milan Rathnayake overtook Pakistan’s first-innings score of 434-9 declared with a pulled boundary off Razaullah before Saqib grabbed two more wickets, including Asitha Fernando for Ghori’s sixth catch behind the wickets.

Razaullah wrapped up a great morning for Pakistan by having Rathnayake top-edging a pull to deep fine leg.

Pakistan’s only wicket to fall was debutant Tayyab Arif, trapped in front by Fernando on 11 in the third over. Arif wasted one of Pakistan’s three reviews but Awais and Taha dug in in testing batting conditions to deny Sri Lanka further success.