SriLanka wobbles after a great start
on January 20th, 2009 at 8:22 amSrilanka won the toss and elected to bat, as a surprise move they sent Dilshan to open and the move payed as Sri lanka are off to a flying start they are 71/1 from 8.4 overs, Dilshan just got out after scoring 42 from 33 balls, he was dropped by Younis khan in the slips on the bowling of Shoaib Akhtar and finally fell on the bowling of Omar Gul.
Pakistan’s move to play four fast bowlers have not paid so much as both Tanvir and Shoaib Akhtar proved to be quite expensive, Shoaib Akhtar along with Misbah was reported to be doubtful for this match yesterday but both players finally made it.
Normally Kamran Akmal is regarded as the Mr. Butter fingers of Pakistan cricket but today the pathans are dropping catches, Younis who is the best slip fielder of Pakistan dropped a sitter and now Afridi dropped Jayasuriya, this one is going to hurt Pakistan.
The selection of Pakistan team for this series is debatable, dropping Fawad Alam and Nasir Jamshed was a stupid mistake especially when both have been scoring runs in the domestic matches, Shoaib Akhtar’s selection has also been widely criticized I think either Mohammad Amir or Sohail Khan deserved a chance in his place.
Its 89/2 Jaya suriya just departed Umar Gul provided a huge relief to Malik.
Its 89/3 now Jaywardane is gone.
OUT, Gone! Jayawardene’s horror run continues, short of a length ball, pitches on off and moves a touch away, Jayawardene feathers it through to the keeper and the complexion of the game has changed in five deliveries. Rao and Omar Gul have brought Pakistan back into the match.
Srilanka after a flying start are wobbling they have Sri Lanka have breached the 200-run mark only once in their last eight games, all of which were against the unthreatening bowling attacks of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
Pakistan needs to remove Sangakara.
The Lankan top order was out of form in Bangladesh and it appears that Pakistan’s bowlers and fielders are also out of form and rusty, Tanvir and Shoaib gave away too much width, Tanvir also strayed the line too much they were not bowling on target, one must remember that this same Srilankan batting line up struggled against Bangladesh through out the series, I hope that Pakistan’s batsmen do not display the same rustyness.
The runs have dried up for Sri Lanka, its 106/3 after 19 overs, Malik should bring in Afridi now.
Malik brings back Shoaib Akhtar instead. Four runs came from the over.
Afridi has been given the ball by Malik, 9 runs came from his first over.
Malik needs to control the singles and plug in the gaps, Afridi came back strong in his second over and removed Kapugadera he is turning the ball.
Afridi needs to control his line and length he is giving away too many runs, bowling either too up or too slow and short.
Pakistan needs a wicket here.
Shoaib Malik to Sangakkara, 1 run, OUT, A run-out as the batsmen looked to pinch a quick run, Sangakkara turns it towards square leg, and wants two but Mubarak is run out when is sent back, Misbah-ul-Haq doing some good work.
Afridi gifted two bad balls to Sangakara but he failed capitalize Malik should bring back Rao or Tanvir.
Wow I am good, just what the doctor ordered.
Malik brings Rao as I suggested and he immediately removes Sangakara.
Iftikhar Anjum to Sangakkara, OUT, The big wicket of Sangakkara. His innings is sawed off at 49, as Sangakkara decides to upper cut the ball at the last moment, after intially shaping to let the bouncer outside off go, Salman Butt at backward point dives to his right and completes an athletic catch.
Rao takes another one and it is 176/7 Srilanka is in deep trouble.
34.4 Iftikhar Anjum to Thushara, OUT, A footwork-free waft, to a short of length ball just outside off, from Thushara ends up in a simple catch to the keeper, the faintest of edges and Iftikhar is on a hat-trick
Sri Lanka are all out for 219, it was Umar Gul and Rao Iftikhar who brought Pakistan back into the game, Malik also bowled decently the score of 219 looks quite easy but its still anybody’s game, Pakistan still has a lot of work to do.
Pakistan won the match comfortably by 8 wickets, Salman Butt and Khurram Manzoor batted sensibly there was no need for flamboyant strokes earlier on as they were chasing a small target, Salman scored a well deserved 100, the thing which impressed me the most was that neither Murali nor Mendis could trouble any of the Pakistani batsmen and as Malik said they had a plan for Mendis, he was attacked from the very beginning and failed to cause any problems for pakistani openers, I am happy that Pakistani players were not over cautious in their approach against him, one can find finger spin/Carom spin bowlers in every street of Lahore, I wouldn’t be surprised if our batsmen practiced against some of the locals.
This victory will perhaps silence some of the journalists and bloggers who have made it a ritual to only highlight the negatives in Pakistan team and it’s players, before every series un necessary speculations and predictions are made about some players and some players are un neccessarily criticized and targeted.
Most probably these people will demote Srilanka also to a minnow level if Pakistan went on to win the series.
One thing I noticed today while surfing Cricinfo and some other blogs that spreading negative sentiments about Pakistan team has become a fashion amongst the blogging community, Osman’s pessimistic match preview and Kamran Abbasi’s Malik bashing were far off from reality.
The new trend is that any team which loses to Pakistan automatically is declared a minnow.
Shoaib Akhtar made a comeback but his success was only limited to him bowling eight overs without breaking down. He looked in good shape and was bowling at a good pace but was too flat and didn’t generated any movement but just because of his rhythm and speed I will still not discount him completely.
I was disappointed by Tanvir he was too wayward lacked speed and movement,he was the weakest link in Pakistan’s pace attack.