Yousuf the hero as Pak end 50 runs ahead

Galle: When he decides to write his autobiography, Mohammad Yousuf, Pakistan's middle-order run making package, will no doubt recall his Test century in this historic seaside town.

After all, how many batsmen, maybe Sir Donald Bradman apart mind you, would be able to take an eighteen-month break from what the International Cricket Council would class as an unofficial league, yet on his return score as near immaculate century as you are likely to see. It was all highly impressive stuff.

It also showed the man's self-belief and competence in what have been difficult pitch conditions. His innings of 112, terminated by a run out from the quick-thinking Tillakaratne Dilshan, enabled Pakistan to grab a first-innings lead of 50 as they reached 342 with Sri Lanka still to put a run on the board in their second innings.

Yousuf opted to play the Indian Cricket League to earn some much-needed extra money for the sake of his family and was, in a sense, fast-tracked back into the Test side. That is quite a remarkable little chapter in its own, don’t you think?

Bradman took time off for something called the World War II, but then so did most of the Aussie population. When he came back, despite a disputed slip-catch, the Don scored a century, eight years after limping off The Oval with an ankle injury. Yousuf’s last Test was against India in Bangalore in December 2007 and since then he has been fiddling around with this Twenty20 rubbish. It explains much about the man’s batting qualities.

Some may argue that it wasn't a brilliant day's play. If so, maybe we were watching a different game for while not great, it is the type of Test cricket that makes you want more. None of this false bling-bling stuff. There was more action in the last session than a dozen Twenty20 games and why the game at this level has all the great qualities, you need to make it worth watching for a full day. There was even a better crowd that you could expect in Colombo.

Okay, so Yousuf had a lucky escape when 57 and Daryl Harper, who gave left-handed Tharanga Paranavitana not out off an inside edge on Saturday, erred again. This is what makes the game what it is. A cameraman who did the work for the referrals in the Test series between India and Sri Lanka a year ago, says that accuracy is about 72 per cent. The rest is guesswork.

That maybe so, but it takes nothing away from the brilliant batting skills displayed by Yousuf, who helped nullify the threat of Ajantha Mendis who, with Muttiah Muralitharan missing, couldn’t build pressure at key points of the game. They played him like a medium pace bowler and at times he looked nothing at all the bowler who was such a threat to the Indian batsmen in the three Tests last year.

If a batsman plays Mendis this way, he is not going to have the effect on them at all and it showed as Yousuf was aided by Misbah-ul-Haq who scored a tidy 56 as the tourists sought to work for a first innings lead. Even Rangana Herath was kept out of the attack until the 48th over of the innings before Kumar Sangakkara tossed the left-arm spinner the ball. At least he caused a few problems with a little extra bounce and get the ball to pitch into the footmarks.

It was such a delivery that caught Yousuf flat-footed, and his lucky escape allowed us to be treated to some more excellent strokeplay. Fancy cuts and aggressive pulls were mixed with drives as he picked off the runs. Having scored 41 at this Galle venue nine years ago, you can guarantee he wanted to get a three-figure total next to his name this time.

He had time to play his shots as well and although the pitch conditions had eased to those on Saturday, it was not always easy to bat in such conditions: the sort that distinguishes quality and brings the need to adopt a skilful approach.

Yet from the moment Yousuf was run out with a two-run lead in the 82nd over, the Pakistan innings battled to maintain the domination that Yousuf and Misbah had displayed. How ironic though that it was the recalled Herath and the stand-in wicketkeeper Dilshan who began Sri Lanka’s fightback as six wickets fell for 50 runs.

Nuwan Kulasekara, benched for the ICC World T20 final against Pakistan at Lord’s, picked up four for 71 with an impressive new-ball spell that enabled him to take two wickets to clean up the lower order. Yet the day will linger with Yousuf’s 24th Test century and a comeback to remember as the visitors, struggling at 80 for four found their saviour.