Pakistan equal Team India's unique record in Tests: Details here
What's the story
The Pakistan cricket team dominated the second Test against Sri Lanka as they amassed 553/3 declared in their second innings. In the process, the Lankans were set a massive target of 476 and are on course to win the series. For Pakistan, the top four batsmen scored centuries to match India's unique Test record. Here are further details on the same.
Feat
Pakistan's top four batsmen equal India's feat in Test cricket
Shan Masood (135), Abid Ali (174), Azhar Ali (118) and Babar Azam (100*) slammed respective hundreds to boss the Test match. With this feat, Pakistan became the second side after India where the top four batsmen amassed century in a single inning of a Test. For India, Dinesh Karthik, Wasim Jaffer, Rahul Dravid, and Sachin Tendulkar scored individual hundreds against Bangladesh in 2007.
Pakistan batsmen
A host of feats for Pakistan's ton-up batsmen
Pakistan Test captain Azhar Ali slammed his 16th career Test century, Shan Masood scripted a special feat after getting past 1,000-plus career Test runs (1,089). This was his second career Test century. The classy Babar Azam slammed his third Test century in 2019 and an overall fourth in his career. He surpassed Virat Kohli (612) in terms of Test runs in 2019 (616).
Other feats
Masood and Abid notch second-best opening stand for Pakistan
Masood and Abid Ali shared a 278-run stand for the opening wicket in the second innings. This is now Pakistan's second-best opening stand in Test cricket history. The score of 553/3d is Pakistan's fourth-highest team total against Sri Lanka in Tests. Abid Ali became the first Pakistani batsman and ninth overall to score a hundred in each of his first two Tests.
Massive records
Some other massive records registered by Pakistan with the bat
Abid has accumulated 321 runs in the two-Test series against Sri Lanka. This is now the highest tally for a Pakistan batsman in the first two Tests of his career. Notably, Pakistan's opening stand (278) was more than what side managed (191) in the first innings. Abid and Shan became the third Pakistani openers to score hundreds in the same Test innings.