DHAKA: Pakistan’s top-order finally clicked to convincingly beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets and four balls to spare in a dead rubber match of Asia Cup T20 here at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur on Friday night.
Other than Hafeez, 14, everyone contributed in achieving the much-needed victory before the commencement of World Twenty20 in India.
Opener Sharjeel made 31 off 24 balls, Sarfraz Ahmed 38 (27) and Shoaib Malik remained unbeaten on 13.
However, the pick of them all was Umar Akmal who top-scored for Pakistan with a 37-ball 48. He got out on the last delivery of the penultimate over trying to clear the boundary for his half-century and his side’s win when the scores were level. He was given the man of the match award.
Kulasekara, Jayasuriya, Dilshan and Siriwardana took a wicket each for Sri Lanka.
Earlier, Sri Lanka’s stylish opener Tillakaratne Dilshan, who hasn’t been performing lately, roared back to form scoring an unbeaten 75 runs off 56 balls to help his side post a challenging total of 150-4.
Dilshan showed full array of his abilities with the bat, smashing 10 fours and a six and carried the bat. His opening partner and Sri Lanka’s skipper for the day Dinesh Chandimal also made a half-century scoring a 49-ball 58 with 7 fours and a six. The opening pair gave a solid platform of 110 runs in first 14 overs.
Other than Mohammad Irfan, who grabbed 2 wickets for 18 runs, no other Pakistani bowler could impress today. Wahab Riaz and Shoaib Malik took one wicket a piece.
Pakistan’s under-scrutiny skipper Shahid Afridi had won the toss and invited Sri Lanka to bat first in the two teams’ last encounter of the Asia Cup T20 here at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur earlier in the evening.
Pakistan team management and captain Afridi are facing severe criticism back home for their dismal performance in the tournament as they, along with today’s opponents, have already been ousted from the slot in the final. In-form India and Bangladesh will face each other in the final on Sunday.
Pakistan has been criticized for having weak openers, none of which have scored more than 11 runs in the tournament. However, bowler Muhammad Amir has delivered extraordinary performance.
Captain Shahid Afridi had been advised to get some rest by the team management and stay away from the match. However, he decided against it and opted to play the game to shun the criticism hurled at him through some solid performance today.
Speaking at the toss, Afridi said: “We can't change the past, a win here will be important before going home first, and then the World T20.”
Defending the fielding first decision on a batting pitch, he said, “There could be a bit of dew [later in the evening].”
Khurram Manzoor, Mohammad Sami and Anwar Ali have been left out, said the Pakistan skipper, adding that Mohammad Nawaz, Wahab Riaz and Iftikhar Ahmed are replacing them.
Sri Lanka’s make-shift captain Dinesh Chandimal said Angelo Mathews has been rested due to a calf strain. Niroshan Dickwella comes in for today’s game, he added.
Teams
Pakistan: Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Iftikhar Ahmed, Sarfraz Ahmed, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi (c), Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Nawaz
Sri Lanka: LD Chandimal (c), TM Dilshan, DSNFG Jayasuriya, N Dickwella, CK Kapugedera, TAM Siriwardana, MD Shanaka, NLTC Perera, KMDN Kulasekara, HMRKB Herath, PVD Chameera
