Amid extremely tight security in Rawalpindi, the Test cricket returned to Pakistan after a decade. The 17,000-seat Pindi Cricket Stadium was heavily guarded by police and army personnel on Day 1 of the match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

By stumps, the stadium was half-full and containing mostly youngsters as Sri Lanka reached 202-5.

The hosts won the toss and put the Lankans to bat first. After a wicket-less opening session, witnessed by only a few spectators, when Sri Lanka cruised to 89-0 against the new ball, Pakistan had its most productive period between lunch and tea as the visitors lost four wickets for 31 runs and slumped to 137-4.

Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne (59), who scored his 24th test half-century, and Oshada Fernando (40) saw off the threat of the new ball with a 96-run opening stand.

Karunaratne, who opted to bat first after winning the toss, hit nine boundaries before he was undone by Shaheen Afridi’s yorker and was out lbw.

Fernando took an hour to register a run, scoring off his 20th ball, before edging 16-year-old paceman Naseem Shah, who was the most impressive bowler with 2-51.

Pakistan surprisingly left out veteran leg-spinner Yasir Shah and instead handed left-arm paceman Usman Shinwari a test debut.

Shinwari bowled to a better line and length after lunch and was rewarded with his first test wicket when Kusal Mendis edged to wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan for 10.

Pakistan’s most experienced bowler, Mohammad Abbas, finally got the first wicket in his 14th over by having Dinesh Chandimal (2) clean-bowled with a delivery that just moved enough to knock back the off-stump.

Former Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews (31) added 62 runs with Dhananjaya de Silva before Shah returned after tea and got the breakthrough. Mathews, who was in the middle for 2 hours, 20 minutes, played a reckless drive and was neatly caught by Asad Shafiq.

Dhananjaya was unbeaten on 38 while Nirsoshan Dickwella was not out on 11 when play was called off early because of bad light, with Pakistan bowling only 68.1 overs.

Sri Lanka was the last team to play a test match in Pakistan in 2009 when terrorists attacked the touring team’s bus in Lahore.

The ambush killed eight people and left several Sri Lankan players and officials injured.

Pakistan has since played its home test matches in neutral territory, mostly in the United Arab Emirates, because international teams didn’t want to visit Pakistan for security reasons.