**Official** Pakistan in Sri Lanka

[TT Boy]

Playing last on this wkt against Murali would be a nightmare, the only way Pakistan could have avoided a defeat in this test match would have been had they taken a good 70-90 runs lead, but it looks like they will concede a lead.

Looks like SL will win the series 1-0

 

[JASON]

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

 

[Armadillo]

Well played Pakistan, bring on England!
Btw, that's gotta be a contender for worst prediction of the week!

 

[TT Boy]

Mohammed Asif man of the match and man of the series.

 

[IndianByHeart]

Btw, that's gotta be a contender for worst prediction of the week!

That was how the match was placed then, even Aamir Sohail said the very same thing on Geo TV!

What upset the calculation was Asif's spell, noone imagined that Lanka would be bowled out for a score of 73.

In the end the difference between the two team proved to be Asif.

Anyway, Congrats to Pakistan for the series win!

 

[RAZAAAA]

Asif test record after this match....

Amazing Average, Economy and Strike rate.

Matches 5
Overs 156.1
Maiden 31
Runs 500
Wickets 25
Best in an innings 6/44
Best in a match 11/71
Average 20.00
Economy 3.20
SR 37.4

 

[JASON]

Btw, that's gotta be a contender for worst prediction of the week!

No, I have got the winner mate .

Extracted from Mahela Jayawardene's interview yesterday -

[Muttiah] Muralitharan could be lethal out there .(on the final day)

 

[alternative]

Thats one excellent bowling performance from Pakistan.. Asif single handedly changed the game.. this is going to be pretty good attack with Shoaib Akthar and Asif there and IMO still think Sami should be there.. he is better suited than Rana Naved..

End of the day, Pakistan should be pleased with their efforts... congrats

For SriLanka its time to regroup and hit the drawing board as they have to work out the opening pair especially with Jayasuriya gone...

 

[Sanz]

Wow, Pak really proved me wrong here. I was the onewho had predicted that Sri Lanka would take both ODIs and Test series, but Pak wins both.

Congratulations to Pak fans.

 

[Fusion]

Great win for Pak! That makes it 3 Test series in a row. I know many detractors will point to this or that excuse, but Pakistan's recent run of success in the Test arena is impressive. Can't wait for the England tour, should be fun!

 

[chaminda_00]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, 73!!!!

Oh well great bowling from Asif, so when are we playing Holland?

 

[no1_gangsta_786]

Congrats to Pakistan and especially Mohammad Asif.....wonderful bowling from him again.

Answering Jason's q's of was the umpiring bad from harper......yes it was..... he turned down 2 appeals from murali to farhat today which were out and he also gave maharoof out LBW on day 4 when the ball looked to be high.

 

[What-A-Player]

3 Consecutive Test Series

5 Undefeated test Series

Real Test = England in Summer, if they win there..No.2 for sure

 

[chaminda_00]

Not yet really have to be competitve against Australia atleast.

 

[What-A-Player]

OK, 2.5

Like I said, England will be set for revenge this summer but Asif can spoil their party too

 

[marc71178]

39.5 Muralitharan to Mohammad Yousuf, no run, flighted ball on the off stump, batsman sweeps and misses, ball strikes the pad and loud appeal, Harper turns it down again, once more a poor decision from Harper

I wonder if anyone watching live can tell me how poor the umpiring was. Given the above it may seem the suggestion is that there was more than 1 poor decision.

Well seeing as Cricbuzz called it a good decision, I'm not sure.

 

[luckyeddie]

In boxing parlance, Pakistan are the 'man who beat the man who beat the man' - and followed that achievement up with an excellent victory in Sri Lanka.

The series in England could be very interesting indeed.

 

[RolledOver]

I think they should have given MOS to Asif but MOM award to Harper.

 

[dinu23]

Does this game suggest that the SL balance isn't quite right at the moment?

By naming someone like Maharoof at 7 it gives the lower middle order a bit of a fragile look IMO, and with the unfortunate injury to Sanath, that's lead to him batting at 6.

With the blessing that is Sangakkara batting up at the top, would it not make more sense to pick a stronger batsman who can fill in a few overs at 7, or failing that encourage Dilshan to work on his bowling to be able to fill the Jayasuriya bowling role and pick another specialist batsman?

yep, the balance isn't quite right.
my team would be:
1 Tharanga
2 atapattu
3 sanga
4 mahela
5 thilan
6 dilshan
7 maharoof
8 vaas
9 herath
10 murali
11 lasith

maharoof can be a good number seven if he can polish up his batting. also I think Bandara is not still suited for test matches, so herath comes in.

 

[JASON]

yep, the balance isn't quite right.
my team would be:
1 Tharanga
2 atapattu
3 sanga
4 mahela
5 thilan
6 dilshan
7 maharoof
8 vaas
9 herath
10 murali
11 lasith

maharoof can be a good number seven if he can polish up his batting. also I think Bandara is not still suited for test matches, so herath comes in.

I really think it is premature to say Bandara is not suited for Tests. The poor guy was ignored by Mahela and hardly given the Ball while Murali struggled to get a favourable responses from Harper.

This is where Sri Lankan captains have failed to do a bit of lateral thinking, I feel.
Getting the other spinner on may have got a favourable response from the Umpire , because generally their (Aussie Umpires) resistance is against Murali and Murali alone.

If Bandara is to be given the cold shoulder after not being given a chance in this Test, it would be unfair. But I would still pick Weerakoon next ahead of Herath in such a situation, to see if he can do better.
But the preference would be to stick with Bandara and give him a fair go, along with Weerakoon.