Pakistan had Sri Lanka 65 for 3, and de Silva and Kusal Mendis have taken them to within 30 in Rawalpindi
Dhananjaya de Silva is 167 not out and his captain 117 not out after an unbroken stand of 249, and Pakistan took one wicket on day three.
Nov 11, 2026
Pakistan had Sri Lanka 65 for 3 on Tuesday. By the time bad light ended Wednesday’s play in Rawalpindi, the visitors were 404 for 4, only 30 behind Pakistan’s 434 for 9 declared, and Dhananjaya de Silva and Kusal Mendis had been batting together since the first session.
De Silva is 167 not out off 241 balls with 20 fours. Mendis, the captain, is 117 not out off 188 balls with ten fours and four sixes. Their stand is worth 249 and still unbroken, and Pakistan did not take a wicket after lunch.
Abbas got one, and that was all
Sri Lanka resumed on 114 for 3 with Kamindu Mendis and de Silva together, and Pakistan got the breakthrough before lunch. Mohammad Abbas, the only Pakistan bowler to take a wicket on the day, found Kamindu’s outside edge and Ghazi Ghori took the catch. Kamindu had made 58 with eight fours, and his stand with de Silva was worth 90.
That made it 155 for 4. Abbas has 2 for 64. The debutant Saqib Khan, who took both of his wickets on Tuesday, has 2 for 105 from 26 overs. Razaullah has gone wicketless for 127 in 23 overs, and neither Salman Ali Agha nor Arafat Minhas troubled either batter.
Two hundreds that looked nothing alike
De Silva’s hundred was his 14th in Tests and Mendis’s his 11th. De Silva has hit 20 fours and no sixes, and he has simply kept going while Pakistan waited for a mistake that never came. Mendis was happier to go over the top and hit four sixes. The captain has had a long match, too, having kept wicket through Pakistan’s 106.3 overs and held five catches.
The light got worse in the final session, and only 12 overs were possible after tea before the umpires took the players off. Pakistan will not have minded much.
A Sri Lanka record in reach
The highest fifth-wicket stand for Sri Lanka in Tests is 280, by Thilan Samaraweera and Tillakaratne Dilshan against Bangladesh in Colombo in 2005. De Silva and Mendis need 32 more to pass it on Thursday, and 31 to put Sri Lanka in front.
On Tuesday this Test looked like Pakistan’s to win. Shakeel’s 93, five Pakistan batters past fifty and three quick Sri Lanka wickets had put them in charge. Now Pakistan need wickets quickly on day four, or the most likely result is a draw, with Sri Lanka the only side who can realistically force anything from here. The Test is scheduled to end on Friday, 13 November, and the second one starts at the same ground four days later after it was moved out of smog-hit Lahore.