Sri Lanka deny Pakistan sweep

With Tom Moody vacating the position of Sri Lankan coach, his side earned a well-deserved win in their last game under him.

It was a slick all round performance, they batted well to set Pakistan 297, and bowled and fielded much better than they did on Sunday, for a 115 run triumph over Pakistan.

Mahela Jayawardene was the pick of their batsmen in Sunday’s loss, and it was the same story today. He scored 83 from 81 balls, and was their rock in the middle order. Once again, he was able to punish the bad balls while taking singles, and shared a partnership of 124 with Chamara Silva, who scored 64 himself, by far the biggest of the innings. The two were able to take advantage of some sloppy fielding, and some fairly unthreatening bowling, before they fell to the spin of Mohammed Hafeez and Abdur Rehman respectively.

Before their wristy strokeplay, Sri Lanka made a brisk start. The top order, Upul Tharanga in particular, took to the bowling of a tired Mohammad Asif, and debutant Najaf Shah, and the ball disappeared repeatedly to the boundary. The introduction of Iftikhar Anjum begged them back though; he removed each of the top three batsmen to bring Silva and the skipper together.

The latter overs of the innings saw a lot of rash strokeplay and confusion between the wickets, but also some big hitting to propel Sri Lanka close to 300, largely from the bat of Tillakaratne Dilshan, with 28 from 15 balls.

Pakistan rang the changes in their line up, making five in total, and the batting struggled to get going. Salman Butt was bowled by Maharoof early on, unsure whether to play or leave, he inside edged onto his stumps. Yasir Hameed and Mohammad Hafeez moved things on nicely from there, each playing some neat strokes, but in Hafeez’s case these were combined with too many wild swings after walking down the track. Hafeez made 34, before a sharp piece of work from Tillakaratne Dilshan, despite a slip, ran him out.

Sri Lanka’s bowlers kept it reasonably tight, but Lasith Malinga was not as restrictive as Jayawardene would have liked, so Dilhara Fernando was brought into the attack. He rewarded his captain with three quick wickets, first of all Hameed top-edging a pull, followed a couple of overs later by two in two balls. Mohammad Yousuf was trapped lbw for a scratchy five, and debutant Fawad Alam offered a simple return catch first up. Kamran Akmal, the last recognised batsman who could offer support to Shoaib Malik, was soon run out for just two, unfortunate that Malinga was able to deflect the ball onto his stumps in his follow through.

Malik played something of his captain’s innings, he made an unbeaten 79. He started cautiously, but as the run rate rose and wickets fell, he had to try and found the boundary, which he did, with four fours and four sixes to his name. He received a little support from Abdur Rehman and Iftikhar Anjum, but the task was much too much for him and the Pakistani tail, and he was left stranded as Lokuarachchi cleaned up the tail.

Sri Lanka 296-9
Mahela Jayawardene 83, Chamara Silva 64
Iftikhar Anjum 3-52, Mohammad Hafeez 2-55

Pakistan 181 all out
Shoaib Malik 79*
Dilhara Fernando 3-20, Kaushal Lokuarachchi 2-32, Farveez Maharoof 2-43

Sri Lanka win by 115 runs but lose the series 2-1

Cricket Web Man of the Match: Dilhara Fernando