Pakistan have been struggling in the limited overs’ formats of the game since the test series against England. The game against Bangladesh was a clear sign that the middle order is not in great shape and Pakistan would have to do more than just good in the matches against Sri Lanka and arch-rivals India to win themselves the Asia Cup. It looked as if the team bowling is ten times better than the batting and that they needed to raise up their game today to compete with the Sri Lankans who have just had a pretty decent tri-nation series at Australia. Pakistani batsmen have struggled to chase totals, either small or big. Most of the batsmen have had their hearts in their mouths when they have heard about Sri Lanka winning the toss and batting first. All relied on the bowling department to contain Sri Lanka under a total of 200.
Sri Lankan openers started with a flurry of boundaries. Aizaz Cheema was on the receiving end as his first two overs went for 22 runs. He came back with a reply and got both the openers. Both were caught while trying to muscle the ball for boundaries, first Jayawardane (12) at point by Muhammad Hafeez and then Dilshan (20) at mid-on by Saeed Ajmal. Umar Gul took the third wicket of Dinesh Chandimal, who nicked one to the first slip and was caught brilliantly by Younis Khan for a duck. Hammad Azam too got himself a wicket when the left-handed Thirimanne tried to cut him but was caught at point by Umar Akmal at a score of 7. Sri Lanka were struggling at 65-4 with almost all the top order back in the hut. Sangakarra and Tharanga held the sinking Sri Lankan ship and formed a huge partnership of 96 runs. Both the batsmen reached their 50s and looked well settled to take Sri Lanka to a good total but as the powerplay started, the collapse began. First on to go was Tharanga who got out at 57 on probably the best delivery of the match; a very well disguised doosra by Saeed Ajmal from round the wicket which disturbed his timber. Next one to go was Maharoof, again off Saeed Ajmal’s bowling. Aizaz Cheema was brought back into the attack by Misbah and he immediately bowled a frustrated Sangakarra at 71. The rest of the tail was quickly removed by Gul and Ajmal. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 188 with almost 4 overs remaining.
The bowlers had done their job superbly and the batsmen needed to do theirs. The openers started off cautiously. They were slow and careful in their approach as they made only 10 runs in the first 8 overs. Slowly, they started gaining momentum but it was short lived as the top three wickets fell at the score of 29, 31 and 33 respectively. With the openers Hafeez and Jamshed gone, Younis Khan too played a foul shot and was caught at mid-on. Pakistan with a mini-collapse were struggling at 33-3. In came Misbah and Umar Akmal to the rescue and formed a brilliant match-winning partnership of 152 runs. Misbah remained not out at 72 while Umar Akmal got out just 4 runs short of the required total. This gave Hammad Azam to come and have a go and so he did. Pakistan got to the required total with 6 wickets and 61 balls remaining which also earned them a bonus point and taking them to the top of the table.
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