Dhananjaya De Silva reached his fifty with a series of superb cuts, drives, and pulls that yielded 10 fours and three sixes.
Sri Lanka battled back from an early collapse to reach 242-6 at stumps on day one of the first Test against Pakistan on Sunday, thanks in large part to an unbeaten 94 from Dhananjaya de Silva. After Sri Lanka lost four early wickets to go to 54-4, de Silva and Angelo Mathews (64) put up 131 for the fifth wicket as Shaheen Shah Afridi took three in his Test comeback. After a 57-run stand, De Silva held steady despite losing his partner Sadeera Samarawickrama (who made 36) in the final session of play at Galle.
After wicketkeeper-batsman Samarawickrama was out to the spin of Agha Salman, the play was called for the day due to the rain.
De Silva reached his fifty with a series of superb cuts, drives, and pulls that yielded 10 fours and three sixes.
He was on pace to make his 10th Test century in his 50th outing, but he slowed down in the final hour.
Mathews scored his 39th fifty in the five-day format on his 105th Test.
Leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed got former captain Mathews caught behind on the stroke of tea, but the partnership looked relaxed as de Silva began to attack the bowlers with boundaries.
After a first rain delay of about 90 minutes, organizers rescheduled the sessions to make up for the lost time and Sri Lanka looked to be in trouble at lunch, which was delayed by an hour.
Left-arm fast Shaheen, who is playing in his 26th Test, reached a century of career wickets when he returned from injury and had Nishan Madushka caught behind for four runs in his second over.
The Pakistani superstar, then 23 years old, hurt his knee at the same location a year earlier.
Rain immediately interrupted play in Galle, but when it resumed, Shaheen had another wicket, dismissing Kusal Mendis for 12.
However, captain Dimuth Karunaratne responded with a couple of boundaries before being caught behind by Shaheen for 29.
Captain Babar Azam made a spectacular grab at third slip, and fast bowler Naseem Shah quickly joined in, getting Dinesh Chandimal out for one with a short delivery.
