ABU DHABI: Kumar Sangakkara hit his eighth double hundred and Prasanna
Jayawardene notched up a fighting century to thwart Pakistan's hopes of
victory to salvage a draw for Sri Lanka in the first Test here on
Saturday.Sangakkara scored 211 during a marathon near
eleven-hour stay while Prasanna made 120, for his fourth century, as Sri
Lanka piled on 483 to frustrate Pakistan on the fifth and final day at
Abu Dhabi stadium.A cluster of wickets in the final session
with Umar Gul taking 4-64 left Pakistan with an improbable target of
making 170 in a maximum 20 overs, but they called it quits on 21-1 after
10 overs.Sangakkara finally fell in the last over before
tea, when he was trapped leg-before by the part-time leg-spinner Azhar
Ali for his first wicket in Test cricket but not before he had
frustrated Pakistan for almost two sessions.Sangakkara batted for 651 minutes, faced 431 deliveries and hit 18 boundaries during an epic knock.With
just 25 overs remaining and the match heading towards a draw, Prasanna
fell caught behind off paceman Aizaz Cheema but by that time he and
Sangakkara had changed the course of the match.Sangakkara
flicked Cheema to fine-leg for his 18th boundary to reach his double
hundred after 604-minutes of defiant batting, punching the air in
delight.Together with Prasanna, Sangakkara added 201 for the
sixth wicket stand, erasing the previous best of 169 in Pakistan-Sri
Lanka Tests for this wicket between Kamran Akmal and Yasir Arafat at
Karachi two years ago.Sangakkara, 33, has also achieved a
personal landmark by scoring a double hundred as he is now third behind
Sir Donald Bradman (12) and West Indian Brian Lara (nine) in terms of
scoring Test double hundreds.Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq
employed all possible means but the Sangakkara-Prasanna pair did not
served up any chances in the first three hours. Prasanna reached his
hundred with his 11th boundary, an uppish drive off spinner Saeed Ajmal.In all Prasanna hit 12 boundaries during his 273-ball knock.Resuming
at 298-5 Sri Lanka survived the morning session unscathed as the
overnight pair of Sangakkara and Prasanna kept Pakistan's three-pronged
pace attack at bay to take their team to 364-5 at lunch.Prasanna
dropped by substitute Wahab Riaz off Gul on 11 one of six catches
Pakistani fielders dropped on Friday -- hit Aizaz Cheema and off-spinner
Saeed Ajmal for consecutive boundaries to help Sri Lanka erase the
deficit.Sangakkara, whose wicket was crucial for both
Pakistan and Sri Lanka, then came into his own hitting Ajmal for an
exquisite cover drive to the ropes and gave no chance to bowlers.Pakistan
used all five bowlers but were left to rue the missed chances of Friday
which spoiled their chances of taking the lead in the three-Test
series.The second Test starts in Dubai on October 26, while the third will be played in Sharjah from November 3.
