Younis dwells on positives

Despite being denied a win at the SSC, Pakistan captain Younis Khan believes there are positives his team can carry forward into the rest of the Sri Lanka tour. "It would have been nice for Pakistan, if we had won," Younis said. "We can draw some positives from this match, especially in the second innings where we scored 400. There were special innings from Misbah [ul-Haq], Kamran [Akmal] and [Shoaib] Malik, and their hitting form is crucial for us. With the ODIs and the Twenty20 approaching, I'm relieved that they got runs."

Play was called off on the final day at the SSC with the 15 mandatory overs to be bowled, and Sri Lanka 101 short of the 492-run target. Younis Khan though, was surprised that Sri Lanka did not press for a win.

"In the subcontinent you expect a wicket like this to get slower and slower. I'm surprised why Sri Lanka didn't go after the target. You can't blame them because they had already won the series. Everybody knew if we could have grabbed one or two wickets, we could have put them under pressure."

Even though Pakistan had a sniff of victory with the dismissal of Thilan Samaraweera on the last day, Younis believed the fifth-wicket partnership of 114 between Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews effectively put paid to hopes of a consolation win.

"Although our main bowlers tried everything and we took our chances, we couldn't make it because of Sangakkara and Samaraweera's partnership," Younis said. "It was a crucial period of saving the Test. All credit to Sangakkara, he was fantastic. He was there for his team and he scored a hundred. It was a special one from him for his side."