GALLE, Sri Lanka (AP) Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath's four-wicket haul reduced Pakistan to 153-8 as Sri Lanka pushed for victory on the last day of the first test on Sunday.
Pakistan is 71 runs ahead after conceding an 82-run first innings lead and has to battle out the remaining 32 overs to deny Sri Lanka a memorable win.
The visitors' hopes rest on Sarfraz Ahmed, who is fighting a grim battle on 29. Shaminda Eranga ran Pakistan into further trouble when he got his 50th test wicket by having Abdul Rehman caught behind in the last over before tea. It was wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella's fourth catch of the innings.
Herath (4-38) got the wickets of top scorer Azhar Ali (41), Younis Khan (13) and Asad Shafiq (8) while offspinner Dilruwan Perera successfully won an lbw decision through DRS against Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq (28) and was lucky as Ahmed Shehzad (16) didn't go for the review when he was struck on the pads.
Pakistan paid a heavy price for being too defensive and let both Sri Lanka spinners come out on top after resuming at 4-1 overnight as it lost three wickets in the morning session and added only 62 runs.