The Match so Far

Interesting match so far ...
1. Younis takes the brave route of batting second on a subcontinental pitch but a very good pitch for anywhere.
2. Pakistan start strongly by getting a couple of early wickets.
3. They give up the early gains by a couple of lousy attempts at catching. The drop by Akmal was specially horrendous.
4. Younis springs a surprise by bringing himself on and regaining the momentum.
5. The momentum is somewhat dissipated by the continued attempts at catching but not catching.
6. Pakistan do well to restrict Sri Lanka to a reasonable score. the check on extras conceded was impressive.
7. Their openers give it up before the day is done (specially Butt). And that was just the first day. 8. Pakistan overhaul the Sri Lankan score with some batting left (5 wickets were down but one was a night watchman).
9. They give up the advantage with two run outs when they could have pushed the advantage through.
10. The only thing which seems up to this point that was in Sri Lanka's control (and where they faltered) was the extras they conceded. A fair portion of the lead came from them.
11. Day 3 Pakistan did little wrong. Somewhat worrying would be Gul's loss of rhythm and Younis's batting. For SL batting is the worry. So Pakistan have set themselves up well. Can they make the final push without faltering this time? This has been their weakness in this match (and in recent years; letting opportunities slide when in control. Hopefully other pitches will be similar.
12. The umpiring has been questionable (some good decisions too). It hasn't been an issue because the teams are on good terms with each other; the bad decisions have gone both ways and probably affected both sides similarly; the match has not gone into a real tight situation yet.