Pakistan on cusp of victory after another record-breaking day.

Byline: Khalid H. Khan

KARACHI -- Pakistan were on cusp of a resounding victory on another record-breaking day in the historic home series after Sri Lanka stuttered in their improbable chase of 476 in the second and final fixture of the ICC World Test Championship at the National Stadium here on Sunday.

By close of play on the penultimate day, the visitors were down in the mire at 212-7, despite an outstanding maiden century from Oshada Fernando, after the top order was rattled by the pace of teenage sensation Nasim Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi.

After Pakistan closed their second innings at 555-3 during the lunch interval after captain Azhar Ali and Babar Azam joined openers Abid Ali and Shan Masood in rewriting cricketing history with centuries, Sri Lanka had to face music in the remaining two sessions of the fourth day's play.

The pressure of batting last on a true pitch with odd deliveries creeping low at times, eventually played on the minds of the Sri Lankan batsmen. However, all credit to the Pakistan bowlers who never let Sri Lankan top order, barring of course the admirable Fernando, get going and plucked out three wickets for 86 runs in the afternoon period.

Mohammad Abbas set the tone by removing Dimuth Karunaratne to an acrobatic effort by wicket-keeper Mohammad Rizwan who scooped up the catch while diving low to his left. After the captain went for 16, Sri Lanka lost Kusal Mendis, who got himself caught in the slips every time he batted on this tour. On this occasion, the talented right-hander only succeeded in giving Babar a catching practice at third slip off Nasim.

When it appeared the tourists had weathered the early storm, they were jolted once again as Angelo Mathews (19) was undone by a slanting delivery from the big left-armer Shaheen, with Rizwan holing another brilliant catch, inches off the turf.

The talk of the match concluding within four days became a real possibility when Nasim got a DRS verdict overturned after pinning Dinesh Chandimal - the top-scorer in the first innings with 74 - in front only for Australian umpire Bruce Oxenford to ignore the vociferous appeal.

Dhananjaya de Silva crumbled under the mounting pressure by chopping the ball onto the stumps for a duck, much to the relief of Yasir Shah who finally celebrated his first wicket on the home soil, and thereby equalled former great Saqlain Mushtaq's haul of 208 Test victims.

With Sri Lanka on the brink of collapsing down like a pack of cards, Pakistan...