Fri, 18 Nov 2011 - Pakistan vs Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in UAE 2011-12, 3rd ODI Match

Bowlers take Pakistan into lead

Pakistan bowlers hung in nicely despite Sri Lanka’s rapid response to the 258 run target, controlling the middle overs to bowl them out to 236. This before, Hafeez and Imran Farhat had helped Pakistan post a significant score with 151-run first wicket partnership. However, the 21-run victory that gave Pakistan 2-1 lead was made possible by a superb bowling effort with Saeed Ajmal and Umar Gul picking up three wickets each.

Chasing a respectable 258, Upul Tharanga crashed the first ball from Umar Gul through point but the bowler replied with peach of a delivery, knocking his off-stump out of the ground. Having lost a wicket early, Sri Lanka were lucky to escape without any further damage with the new balls.

Both Gul and Sohail Tanvir extracted enough movement to trouble the batsmen regularly. Despite few coming from middle of the bat, shot making proved to be difficult for Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara.

Somehow, runs flowed for Sri Lanka even though the two senior men failed to run convincingly between the wickets. There was confusion on more than one occasion and almost inevitably Sangakkara was run-out for 45 not before pushing his team past 100.

Meanwhile, Dilshan after reaching his fifty tried to play anchor, however a freak dismissal meant Sri Lanka had two new batsmen in the middle facing Pakistan’s wily spinners.

Mahela Jayawardene was beginning to look good but nifty glove work by Sarfraz Ahmed sent him back for 17. With run rate slowly going past 6 per over, Angelo Mathews hit Tanvir for boundary and a six in the 39th over.

With 72 required from 10.4 overs, Saeed Ajmal had Dinesh Chandimal caught for 31 to peg back Sri Lanka. And, Afridi removed Malinga in his last over to further dent the chase.

Angelo Mathews and Jeevan Mendis added 32 at more than run-a-ball as the match headed for a close finish. When Hafeez sent back the former with Lanka still requiring 40, Pakistan were marginally in front. And, Ajmal strengthened Pakistan’s position with his third scalp, Thisara Parera clean bowled for four.

Gul conceded only three runs from the 47th over before dismissing Prasanna in his next over, the equation reading 23 form 10 deliveries. All the while, Angelo Mathews had held up one end but eventually ran out of partners as Gul cleaned up last man Fernando and gave his team lead in the five match series with two to go.

Earlier, Pakistan chose to bat on a Dubai pitch that has showed its slow nature during the last two matches. And, with up and down bounce coming into play pretty early, batting was not an easy task. Mohammad Hafeez offered a return catch in the fourth over but Thisara Parera failed to grab the opportunity of an early wicket.Imran Farhat, at the other end did have his own problems-struck on the body a couple of times but managed to put bat to ball on anything pitched in his hitting zone. Despite some assistance for the bowlers, Pakistan escaped unhurt to 62 after fifteen overs.

Farhat smashed the first ball of the bowling powerplay for four before Hafeez got his act together in the eighteenth over, taking Dilhara Fernando for four boundaries to jump to 47. He brought up his fifty shortly afterwards, Imran Farhat followed suit as Pakistan were steadily building a launch pad for power hitters in the side.To make matters worse for Sri Lanka, the laxity in the field that included a dropped chance by Prasanna off skipper Dilshan, allowed Pakistan to score handsomely. With spinners in operation, both batsmen clattered a six each before Sri Lanka got the break through as Hafeez was bowled for 83.

Soon after Imran Farhat having made 70 holed out at wide long-on, Razzaq promoted up the order to cash in on the solid start, tried to smack one out of the ground instead found Thisara Parera at long-on as three quick wickets brought Sri Lanka right back into contention.

When Umar Akmal missed a Malinga yorker in the first over of bowling powerplay, Pakistan had squandered a position of strength and certainly needed rebuilding. Though, they had the batsmen for the job in the form of Misbah and Younis Khan but there wasn’t enough time for a gradual recovery. Still the skipper’s run out in the 40th over didn’t help matters.

Shahid Afridi hit a lone boundary in his run-a-ball 15 but Younis Khan with the support of Sohail Tanvir made sure that Pakistan went past 250 despite the slump.For Sri Lanka, leggie Seekkuge Prasanna bowled well to return with figures of 2 for 39 in nine overs and Malinga claimed brace to limit Pakistan to 257.