Nasim's five-for concludes proceedings as Pakistan trounce Sri Lanka.

Byline: Khalid H. Khan

KARACHI -- Rising speedster Nasim Shah belied his tender age to grab his maiden five-for as Pakistan trounced Sri Lanka by a handsome margin of 263 runs at the National Stadium in an instantaneous conclusion to the second and final match of the ICC World Test Championship here on Monday.

The 1-0 series triumph their first against Sri Lanka on home soil after an astonishing gap of 27 years (1991-92 season) not only catapulted to Pakistan to third from sixth spot with a tally of 80 points in the table after they pocketed 60 which were on offer for winning in a two-match rubber, but also saw them record their home victory since defeating West Indies at this venue in November 2006, and their first overall after having lost to New Zealand 13 months ago at Abu Dhabi, and their 22nd from 42 games at this imposing venue.

Pakistan's redemption after a losing six-match sequence was broken by last week's rain-ravaged first Test was finally completed. Sri Lanka were already in a state of despondency after having slumped to 212-7 at stumps on the fourth evening and their lone route to escape was profuse assistance from the divine intervention an occurrence which was in abundance during drawn Test in the bitterly cold garrison town of Rawalpindi.

But the tourists were unaware that it had hardly rained in Karachi over the past two months and were dismissed without any addition to the overnight score to enable Pakistan celebrate a famous win and be overjoyed for many reasons.

There was no escaping for the tourists on a cool morning because the winners emerged within just 14 minutes 16 deliveries in total as the menacing sight of a fiery Nasim plucked out two of the remaining three wickets to emerge at the age of 16 years and 307 days (date taken into account from start of the Test) as the youngest-ever pace bowler to take five wickets in a single innings.

Nasim, who overall is the second youngest to claim five-for in Test history after compatriot Nasim-ul-Ghani the slow left-armer who took 5-116 at the age of 16 years and 303 days versus the West Indies at Georgetown in March 1958 was also on course of becoming the youngest to a hat-trick but missed out as Vishwa Fernando blocked out the next ball after the dismissal of Lasith Embuldeniya in a brute fashion when the tailender tried an evasive action but got a faint edge to the wicket-keeper.

With Dilruwan Perera gone the first delivery of the Sunday's last over, the incoming...