Misbah-ul-Haq with the series trophy. — AFP

by Dawn

Pallekele: Younis Khan steered his team towards a historic victory over Sri Lanka as Pakistan chased down a mammoth 377 on the final day to clinch the third Test and the three-match series on Wednesday.

Pakistan sealed their highest run chase and the second highest in the sub-continent with the win. It was also sixth highest successful chase in history.

Shan Masood fell for 125 but Younis Khan continued from where he left off on the fourth day as Pakistan achieved the target for the loss of just three wickets at the Pallekle International Stadium.

Younis was unbeaten on 171 with skipper Misbah-ul-Haq (59) at the other end as the visitors registered a remarkable win.

Off-spinner Tharindu Kaushal drew Masood out of his crease with flight and beat him with turn to have him stumped but not before the opener had added 242 runs with Younis to turn the match on its head.

Even after Masood departed after scoring 125, Younis played with characteristic fluency, hitting 18 boundaries in his unbeaten 271-ball knock.

Pakistan entered the final day’s play needing a further 147 runs with eight wickets in hand on a wearing, but easy-paced Pallekele pitch.

It was the first time a visiting team scored more than 300 runs in the fourth innings to win a Test on Sri Lankan soil.

Pakistan’s previous highest successful chase was 314, made against Australia in Karachi in 1994.

Younis has scored 20% of all the 4th-inngs runs scored by Pakistan in the matches he has played – 1333 out of 6554 bat runs (excl extras)

— S Rajesh (@rajeshstats) July 7, 2015

Pakistan won the first Test in Galle by 10 wickets and Sri Lanka took the second in Colombo by seven wickets.

The tourists finally ended a long streak of not winning in Sri Lanka where they lost the last three series in 2009, 2012 and 2014.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 278 and 313; Pakistan 215 and 382/3