'Grand opening stand has taken the game away from SL'.

Byline: Khalid H. Khan

KARACHI -- After an arduous day for the visiting Sri Lanka side, their assistant coach Rumesh Ratnayake said that the decisive final Test of the two-match has tilted Pakistan's way following the epic opening partnership from the bats of Abid Ali and Shan Masood.

'There is no doubt in my mind that Abid and Shan played brilliantly to take the game away from Sri Lanka despite all our efforts to stem the flow of runs,' Ratnayake, who was the interim head coach during the ODI and T20 series in September/October, frankly admitted during the media conference. 'Credit must be given the way their openers batted to put Pakistan in full control.'

The former Test paceman, who is replaced by ex-Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur on the eve of team's departure for the ongoing series lamented the lack of game plans from Sri Lanka on Saturday.

'We didn't stick to our plans as well as we should have because at the start of the day our aim was to restrict them as much as possible. Each session we had certain targets in our minds,' Ratnayake remarked. 'We wanted to keep them to 70 to 80 runs per...