Has shoddy fielding let Sri Lanka down? Yes, says assistant coach

If not for Sri Lanka's shoddy fielding, made to look even worse by Pakistan's outstanding catching performance, the hosts might be on top in this match. This is how Sri Lanka's assistant coach Naveed Nawaz felt at the end of day four, by which time Pakistan required only 83 more runs to win with seven wickets in hand.

Sri Lanka still have an exceedingly slim chance of winning the game, thanks to a surface that seems likely to take significant turn on Thursday morning. But Pakistan's excellent catching has meant that Sri Lanka have only 130 to defend.

"I think fielding is the reason why we're in this situation in this Test," Nawaz said. "We dropped too many catches. We would have got them out for 300 in the first innings if we'd held our catches.

"In the second innings a couple of half-chances went Pakistan's way and they held on to it. That also had an impact on us. Fielding's crucial and has always been crucial. It's been disappointing, the standard of fielding we've displayed."

The most spectacular of Pakistan's grabs was Abdullah Shafique's one-handed take at short leg, to dismiss Sadeera Samarawickrama, in the second innings. As the batter had advanced down the track, Shafique also shuffled to his left - towards the bowler. But the chance came quickly off Samarawickrama's bat, essentially wrong-footing him. Shafique reacted quickly, stayed low to the ground, and reeled in a ball that seemed to have passed him, only the tips of his right fingers making the initial contact.

Beyond this, just on day four, Babar Azam took a sharp catch at slip, going quickly to his left to grab an edge off the bat of Angelo Mathews, which was also travelling fast. Later Imam-ul-Haq dived low to his left at short midwicket to get his fingertips under a chance from Dinesh Chandimal - the replays showing he'd plucked it centimetres from the turf.

Imam had magicked up a wicket in the first innings as well, Samarawickrama the victim, again caught at short leg. This time the chance had gone high above Imam's head, but he leapt up to snaffle it in the dying stages of the first day.

After play on day four, Agha Salman said Pakistan had recently made fielding a priority.

"We had camps before we came here, and our main focus was our fielding," he said. "We prepared really well for it, and that's paying off now. Catches win matches is something we've heard since I was a child. When you take these kinds of catches, it will make a difference in the game."

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, had dropped Saud Shakeel twice during his 208 not out - both pretty straightforward chances. Nishan Madushka had grassed one at leg slip to reprieve Shakeel on 93. When Shakeel top-edged a slog sweep on 139, Mathews made good ground to get to it on the deep-midwicket boundary but shelled that catch as well.

There was, in addition, the missed stumping of Naseem Shah in the first innings - Samarawickrama the culprit on that occasion. Shakeel and Shah would add another crucial 26 to their outstanding ninth-wicket stand before he was dismissed.