Fourth ODI at Premedasa Cricket Stadium commenced with sun shining bright and came to the aid of empty-bellied weather-miffed cricket viewers. Jayawardene won the toss for Sri Lanka and put Misbah’s men in green to bowl. Umar Gul started the proceedings for Pakistan and claimed the wicket of Tharanga (4) just in the third over of the match, who handed over a sharp catch to the alert hands of Younis Khan at second slip.
Sohail Tanvir anchored the innings at the other end with Gul and made scoring difficult for Sangakara and Dilshan. Sangakara escaped a close call in the sixth over off a Tanvir slower bowl. Tanvir and Gul's opening bursts kept Sri Lanka to 35 for 1 after 10 overs.
Shahid Afridi was the first of the three spinners to be introduced as a bowling change followed by Younis Khan’s seam-up bowling at the other end--this being the 19th time YK bowled in an ODI.
Shahid Afridi began his stint with two poor deliveries; second one being cut by Dilshan for four and the scoring picked up with the batsmen appearing slightly more comfortable against spin. Just when Dilshan looked settled and set for a big score, Hafeez came into the attack straight after the drinks break and trapped Dilshan (24) with his genius, right in front of the wicket. Hafeez and Ajmal tightened the screws and conceded only 10 runs in the bowling power play from overs 16 to 20, teasing Sangakara and Chandimal.
Change of ends for Hafeez proved crucial, with him claiming yet another victim, Chandimal(18) in the 26th over who could only manage two boundaries in his short knock.
Meanwhile, clouds continued flirting and testing the nerves of not only the spectators but also the players, resulting in an hour of rain interruption. No overs were lost and play resumed at 91/3 with some beautiful, deceptive loop-angled turn bowling by Afridi and nagging off-spinners and little skitters by Hafeez.
Run-rate was dropping steadily for Sri Lanka uptil the 30th over when Pakistan’s men failed to make adjustments in the field and continued their scratchy fielding. Sri Lankans were desperate to get the scorecard ticking and their improvisation was helped with yet another poor display in the field by Umar Gul who missed the big fish Sangakara off Afridi’s bowling.
Sri Lankans took full advantage of the missed opportunity by Pakistan in the field and Sangakara broke free, cleared the infield and the outfield several times cleverly which added insult to injury for Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Sangakara and Jayawardene became the fourth pair to aggregate 11,000 runs in ODIs and continued to daunt Pakistan badly.
Just into the 37th over, Umar Gul was taken to the cleaners by Sangakara who styled his stroke to perfection and banged him for a magnificent six over long-on.
At this point, Pakistan looked completely out of sorts with their premier fast bowler being thrashed all over the park by Mahela and Sangakara who looked promising and brought up their 50 runs partnership in 65 balls .
Ever since Gul dropped Sangakara, some exquisite and acrobatic batting was displayed by the two tremendous players who kept having a go at the bowlers.
Sri Lankans looked threatening with 174/3 at the end of 40 overs but Pakistani bowlers were able to put the brakes with some support from their fieldsmen. Sohail Tanvir yorked Jayawardene in the 44th over and later Azhar Ali moved in swiftly for the kill and sent Sangakara packing, three runs short of what would have been his 29th century, leaving SL 204/5
It was proving to be an enticing contest between bat and ball--two new batsmen at the crease and the bowlers trying to limit the damage. Prera (8) was next to make it to the pavilion, holding out to Umar Akmal who was patrolling the long-on boundary, off Ajmal’s bowling. Introducing out of color Umar Gul was always risky and he was thrashed for a cracking six by Thirimanne over mid wicket. Finally, Afridi had the non-striker’s stumps down and sent Thirimanne (13) packing. Next to depart was Kulasekara (3), beaten and bowled by Tanvir on the second last bowl of the innings.
Pakistan had kept their chances alive by restricting Sri Lanka to 243/8
Hafeez and Azhar Ali opened the innings for Pakistan. Men in green began chasing the not-so-mammoth total with a psychological barrier of their incompetent chasing abilities. Malinga got the better of Hafeez sending him back to the hut without disturbing the scorers, registering fifth duck in his last 12 international innings.
Asad Shafiq aimed to consolidate the innings with Azhar Ali who played some magnificent strokes. Pakistan batsmen were proceeding at a very low rate and could only manage 29/1 at the end of 10 overs. Just into the 14th over, 34 year old Weerakoon claimed his first international wicket. Asad Shafiq (25) missed a straight ball and was trapped in front of the wicket.
Misbah came in next and anchored the sinking ship of Pakistan with Azhar Ali, moving the score to 100/2 in 25 overs. Azhar also hit his first ODI six in the 35th over of the innings. The batsmen kept cruising along at tortoise pace, trying to kill the strength of the bowlers, which later proved quite ineffective. 
The context of the match dramatically changed in the 38th over when Misbah (57) was dismissed by Malinga, as Kulasekara took a blinder catch . A well crafted innings came to an end and hence laid the foundation of Pakistan batting line-up’s disastrous collapse. Umar Akmal(0) followed his captain back to the pavilion flirting outside the off stump and edging the ball to Sangarkara.
The innings was well placed with Pakistan requiring 68 runs off 60 balls, but only team Pakistan had the ability to take a complete U-turn and equalize its record for most ducks(6) in an innings, allowing Perera to become the 7th Sri Lankan Bowler to claim an ODI Hattrick, who later claimed man of the match award.
Younis Khan, Shahid Khan Afridi, Sarfraz Ahmad, yet again failed to live up to their reputations and licked the dust. Sohail Tanvir and Umer Gul were not behind in adding to Pakistan’s miserable slump. From 166/3 to 176/8—Pakistan lost 6 wickets for just 10 runs. Azhar Ali remained not out on 81.
Pakistan snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Some ordinary fielding, wayward bowling and school-boy batting display sums up Pakistan’s performance for tonight. Credit must be given to the Sri Lankan team for holding on their nerves and snatching victory from Pakistan.
Pakistan team and management have their work cut out for the upcoming days.
GeoSuper