ABU DHABI : Pakistan continued to bat Sri Lanka out of the first Test
despite losing Azhar Ali in the morning session as they extended their
first-innings score to 336-2 in the first Test here on Thursday.Pakistan,
resuming their first innings at 259-1 in reply to Sri Lanka's modest
197, frustrated the Sri Lankan bowling as opener Taufiq Umar achieved
his career-best score of 146 not out on the third day at Abu Dhabi
stadium.Umar found another able partner in Younis Khan who
was unbeaten on 25 at the break, the pair having put on 58 so far for
the third wicket.Sri Lanka, fighting hard to restrict
Pakistan, managed just one wicket in the session when paceman Chanaka
Welegedara bowled Ali with an incoming delivery in the seventh over of
the day.The overnight pair of Umar and Ali extended their
second wicket stand to 160 as they again remained unflappable on a pitch
that gave little response to pace and spin bowlers.Ali, who
has 10 half centuries in 14 Tests now, yet again failed to register his
maiden hundred as he came late on a swinging delivery which uprooted
his off-stump. Ali struck six boundaries.Younis had a shaky
start as he was beaten by Welegedara first ball and was then dropped by
Prasanna Jayawardene off skipper Tillakaratna Dilshan when a leg-side
edge was dropped by the wicket-keeper despite getting two attempts.Umar,
31, remained steady as he hit a glorious boundary off Suranga Lakmal
and then took a single off Rangana Herath to go past his previous best
score of 135, made on two occasions.He hit 135 against South
Africa at Cape Town in 2003 and repeated that score against the West
Indies at St. Kitts earlier this year.Umar has so far hit eleven boundaries during his 372-ball marathon innings.
