Pakistan Solid Start After Srilanka All-out on 606

Lahore: Thilan Samaraweera scored his second double hundred in a row and Tillekaratne Dilshan stroked a fluent century as Sri Lanka amassed 606 on the second day of the second Test against Pakistan.

Pakistan were 110 for one in reply at the close on Monday with Salman Butt run out in the final over of the day for 48. Fellow opener Khurrum Manzoor is unbeaten on 59.

Samaraweera scored a majestic 214 and Dilshan 145, overshadowing career-best Test figures of six for 135 by Umar Gul. The 32-year-old Samaraweera, who scored 231 in the drawn first Test in Karachi, batted for almost seven hours, facing 338 balls and hitting 32 fours.

Samaraweera's long innings ended when was run out when he called for a sharp single to cover from where Shoaib Malik relayed the ball to the wicketkeeper via Danish Kaneria with both batsmen stranded in the middle.

His dismissal ended a record 207-run fifth wicket stand with Dilshan, the best for the wicket by Sri Lanka against Pakistan, surpassing the 143 between Russell Arnold and Romesh Kaluwitharana set at Lahore in 1999.

Dilshan, who was also run out after tea, raced to his eighth Test hundred from just 109 balls, cutting Kaneria for a four to reach the milestone. He also completed 3,000 career runs.

Umar Gul produced a sparkling spell of reverse swing and Pakistan's aggressive openers got off to a flying start but the pressure was still on the home side after Sri Lanka reached 606 in their first innings at Lahore.

Highlights of the day

• Thilan Samaraweera's second double-century in successive Tests has pushed his career average past 50 for the first time in more than three years. Since returning to the team in November 2007, he has averaged 84.28, with 1180 runs in ten games.
• It's the tenth instance of a batsman scoring double-hundreds in successive Tests - the previous ones were achieved by Don Bradman (thrice), Wally Hammond (twice), Vinod Kambli, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara and Graeme Smith.
• For the first time, Sri Lanka had two double-century partnerships in a single innings - Samaraweera added 204 with Kumar Sangakkara and 207 with Tillakaratne Dilshan.
• Umar Gul's 6 for 135 is his best figures in Tests. Three of his four five-fors have come in Lahore, where he has taken 25 wickets in four games at an average of 21.84. Both his Man-of-the-Match awards have been at this venue.
• Danish Kaneria conceded more than 100 runs in an innings for the 34th time in 53 Tests. It's only the second time, though, that he has conceded more than 100 and gone wicketless.
• Tillakaratne Dilshan's 145 is his first century against Pakistan. In his ten previous innings against them he had only scored 174 runs. Dilshan also became the 10th Sri Lankan to score 3000 Test runs.