A 101 partnership for the fourth wicket by Pakistan’s Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik set up a comfortable 33 win over Sri Lanka in a Super Eight Twenty20 World Championship match at the Wanderers on Monday.
Pakistan scored a credible 189/6 in their 20 overs with Sri Lanka only managing 156 for the loss of nine wickets.
Asked to bat by Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardena, Pakistan soon found themselves 33 for three wickets after five overs with Salman Butt, Imran Nazir and Mohammed Hafeez all back in the dugout. Khan was then joined by Malik and the pair set about stabilising the innings. Their 50 partnership came in just 33 balls and Khan brought up is side’s 100 in the 12th over with a magnificent six over mid-on off the hapless Sanath Jayasuriya.
Jayasuriya had a nigthmare with the ball in hand eventually going for 64 runs in his four over spell.
Younis then reached his milestone half century in 32 deliveries and the 100 partnership came shortly afterwards in 55 balls.
Younis was first to go when attempting a huge cover drive which found TM Dilshan on the boundary off the bowling of Lasith ”slinger” Malinga.
Malik, in the middle with big hitting Shahid Afridi, then reached his 50 before he was caught at mid-off by the same Dilshan/Malinga combination for a 31 ball 57.
Afridi (17), Kamran Akmal (not-out 10) and Misbah-u-Haq (16) guided the total to 189.
In almost a mirror image of the Pakistan innings, Sri Lanka were also in trouble when they lost three wickets in the opening five overs with just 35 on the board. Jayasuriya was having a bad time of it when he was dropped by Sohail Tanvir from the third ball he faced when trying to hook Muhammad Asif.
However, Tanvir redeemed himself when he clean bowled the veteran batsman with the first ball of the following over for a mere five runs.
Once again it was the fourth wicket partnership that came to the rescue. Chamara Silva and Jayawardena dug their heels in with a 50 partnership off 31 deliveries before Jayawardena was caught sweeping on the boundary by Hafeez off the spin of Afridi.
It was left to Dilshan to hold the innings together and he made a fist of it in the penultimate over with three massive sixes off Hafeez, but when he holed going for the fourth it left Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando needing 39 runs to win in the last over.
Afridi’s spell was decisive with figures of 4-0-18-3, but the man-of-the match was awarded to Khan for his 51 runs. – Sapa