I guess Fawad Alam and Younis Khan slept soundly last night!

Both, Fawad and Younis, looked very comfortable at the crease and the runs flowed for Pakistan, stretching their lead from an overnight 28 to 144.

The best thing about Fawad's innings is that he has scored at a very good pace, yet he has hardly played any big shots.

It would be ironic to say that his runs have come unnoticed, but that is the way he has played.

Fawad has given the Sri Lankan bowlers a slow death and they are probably still wondering what hit them.

Younis was a bit more aggressive this morning; he missed out on a well deserved century and would have got there had he not tried to reverse sweep a rank full toss.

It was not a delivery that should have got a wicket but then something had to go Sri Lanka's way.

Pakistan is now in a very good position and they can convert this lead into a match winning one if they continue in the same vein.

I'm not sure what would be a match winning total here as the wicket is playing very well and Sri Lanka have chased 350+ on this ground before.

However, going by the way Sri Lanka have batted in this series, I would be confident if they are set a total over 300.

Having said that, Pakistan should look to bat out the day and take the match away from Sri Lanka.

They have the liberty to do so.

Pakistan lost 6 wickets in the morning session yesterday; Sri Lanka lost 5 today.

Are the batsmen not getting proper sleep?

Yesterday morning was just a poor execution of batting skills against a new swinging red cherry.

This morning, however, the Sri Lankans were outsmarted by a rejuvenated Umar Gul.

After a lacklustre performance in the first test, Gul completely redeemed himself this morning with a top performance that got him 3 wickets, including the all important one of King Sanga.

Saeed Ajmal bowled non-stop during this session, and bowled well; it surprised me though that Mohammad Aamer was given only 4 overs this morning.

Aamer should have had a couple of wickets; if only Khurram had safer hands and some other edges had flown to the fielders, but I believe Younis should have bowled him more.

But then with 5 wickets, Pakistan has done well and somewhat brought themselves back into this game so I wouldn't argue against Younis Khan's tactics.

History would tell you that 150 would be a more than enough lead for Sri Lanka, but NC has different ideas.

A good Colombo morning for the Pakistanis after the nightmare yesterday.