Watch: ‘Drop catch of the year’- ‘Babar Azam surprisingly drops a sitter to give Angelo Mathews a second chance in his 100th Test

The second Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan got underway on Sunday at Galle International Stadium. Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss and elected to bat first. The decision to bat first was further vindicated by the openers Oshada Fernando and captain Karunaratne as they added 92 runs for the first wicket. After a good opening stand, Sri Lanka lost their way and ended up losing three wickets in quick succession as Pakistan clawed their way back into the game.

At the score of 120/3, Angelo Mathews walked in to bat who’s playing his 100^th Test match.  The onus of taking Sri Lanka out of the misery was now on Mathews and in form Dinesh Chandimal who were looking good at the wicket. Just when everything seemed perfect, Mathews mistimed a cover drive which went straight to Pakistan captain Babar Azam but much to his dismay he ended up dropping a ‘sitter.’

The incident happened in the 52^nd over of the Sri Lankan innings when Mathews misjudged the speed of a flighted delivery from spinner Nauman Ali and ended up playing a cover-drive early as his bottom hand came off the bat. The shot produced the simplest of catches to Babar who was stationed at cover but ended up dropping an easy catch.

Here’s the video:

BABAR AZAM WITH THE DROP CATCH OF THE YEAR #SLvPAK pic.twitter.com/wBlGhvM3LH

— Waqas RF وقاص 🇵🇰🇳🇿 (@Fed_43600) July 24, 2022

Nauman was finally able to dismiss Mathews a few overs later as he edged the ball to wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan. The drop by Babar didn’t prove too costly for Pakistan as Mathews was dismissed for 42 failing to get a big score in his 100^th Test match.

Pakistan are leading the series 1-0 after their record-breaking chase of 342 in the first Test. They will be looking to whitewash the Lankans in their den to climb to the third position on the World Test Championship standings and keep their hopes of qualifying for the finals alive. South Africa are at the top of WTC Standings while Australia are on the second spot.