[B][U]Teams:[/U][/B]

 

[B]Sri Lanka[/B]

TM Dilshan, HDRL Thirimanne, KC Sangakkara†, CK Kapugedera, LD Chandimal, AD Mathews*, NLTC Perera, SMSM Senanayake, KS Lokuarachchi, KMDN Kulasekara, I Udana

 

[B]Pakistan[/B]

Mohammad Hafeez*, Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Khalid Latif, Shakeel Ansar†, Sohail Tanvir, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Sami, Yasir Arafat

 

 

 

[U][B]Pakistan innings[/B]  [/U]

 

Mohammad Hafeez won the first toss of his captaincy career, and had no hesitation in batting first. Umar Gul was replaced by Yasir Arafat which meant that Hammad Azam, who is only in the T20 squad, would be returning home without a game. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, rested their big guns Mahela Jayawardene and Lasith Malinga, who have both recently come back from long IPL stints.

 

Hafeez came into the game with three consecutive ducks in T20s, and nearly had a fourth as Kulasekara cut  him in half with the first ball, narrowly missing the stumps and the inside edge. He took 7 balls to finally get off the mark, creaming a full Mathews delivery through the covers. Ahmed Shehzad, after a decent knock in the last game, crashed his first ball to the boundary but was outdone by a Kulasekara inswinger shortly after.

 

Sri Lanka maintained the pressure on the two batsmen, bowling several dot balls, before Hafeez charged down and hit Mathews over cover for 4. More dot balls followed though, before Khalid Latif was unfortunately run out, the bowler getting his fingers on a Hafeez straight drive, and the batsman was caught backing up too far. Udana continued to pile the pressure on, bowling a maiden to Umar Akmal, and 18/2 at the end of the powerplay was a very poor effort.

 

Things didn't get much better though, as just 10 were taken from the next two overs, before Akmal fell LBW to Lokuarachchi's first ball. Boundaries continued to prove hard to come by, despite Hafeez's efforts, and he finally fell in the 11th over looking to break the shackles, hitting a short ball straight mid-wicket.

 

That brought former captains Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik to the crease. Some sensible cricket interlaced with the odd boundary kept the scoreboard ticking over. The 15th over proved the most fruitful by far, with Malik taking three consecutive boundaries off Lokuarachchi. All three were fantastic shots and badly needed at that stage. More good running pushed the score to 89/4 with four overs left, before Afridi opened up against Perera and scored 11 from the over.

 

Both Malik and Yasir Arafat fell towards the end of the innings, but Afridi continued to find the boundary, including the first 6 of the innings, and reached an unbeaten 52 off 33 balls. However, 122/6 looked well below par and, even without Jayawardene, Sri Lanka would be confident of winning again and claiming a series whitewash.

 

[U]Fall of wickets [/U]

 

1-11 (Shehzad, 2.1 ov)

2-18 (Latif, 4.6 ov)

3-29 (Akmal, 8.1 ov)

4-41 (Hafeez, 10.1 ov)

5-109 (Malik, 18.3 ov)

6-119 (Arafat, 19.3 ov)

 

 

[B][U] Sri Lanka Innings[/U][/B]

 

If the first T20I was anything to go by, chasing the target of 123 set by Pakistan for the Sri Lanka's wasn't going to be as easy as it looks. Sangakkara and Dilshan opened the batting, whilst Sohail Tanvir had the ball in hand for Pakistan.

 

Sangakkara got off the mark after the third ball of the innings by dispatching a short and wide delivery to the boundary for a four. Disaster almost struck though at the end of the over after some confusion between the batsmen should have seen Dilshan run out and sent back to the pavilion but Khalid Latif missed the stumps and there was there was nobody backing up the stumps, Dilshan had survived.

 

Yasir Arafat, returning to the Pakistan team after more than 2 years, *opened the bowling at the other end and was spanked for two consecutive four’s by Dilshan, a great way for the opening batsman to get off the mark after surviving the run out scare in the first over.

 

However, Arafat came back strong in the fourth over to dismiss both Sangakarra and the surprising number 3 batsman Kulasekara for a four ball duck. Sangakarra needlessly gave his wicket away as he came down the track and mis-hit the ball straight to point where Malik took an easy catch. Kulasekara followed in the same fashion, going for a wild slog with the ball only reaching cover point where Malik again made no mistakes with the catch. Sri Lanka were 19/2 and going nowhere with these unnecessary shots.

 

Kapugedera was the next man and put his first set of runs on the board by with a pull shot for four. The first bowling change came after the 6th over where Sami was brought on in place of Tanvir. Sami, who didn’t have the best of games on Friday, was looking good, bowling at around 90mph. Another bowling changing saw Arafat replaced by the half-centurion from the first innings, Shahid Afridi, who struck in his first over to dismiss the man who dropped him earlier in the field, Dilshan, cleaned bowled by the Pakistani all rounder.

 

Sami was taken off after just one over and replaced by Saeed Ajmal. Ajmal bowled the doosra on only his second delivery which was not read at all by Kapugedera. Was this a sign of things to come?

 

At the half way mark, Sri Lanka had reached 48/3, requiring another 75 runs, with some more than capable batsman yet to come. Kapugedera then proceeded to hit Afridi for a maximum after cleanly slog sweeping a delivery bowled full outside off. Afridi took revenge the very next ball by bowling Kapugedera with a slider which took out the stumps. Sri Lanka were now 62/4.

 

With 7 overs remaining Sri Lanka now required 49 runs. Afridi had bowled out, ending his spell with 2 wickets, conceding only 17 runs. Tanvir was reintroduced for his final over which brought success, conceding only 1 run and picking up the wicket of Chandimal, who tried to scoop a slower ball, missed it, and the bowl going on to hit the leg stump. With 5 overs left, Sri Lanka were now required to go at a rate of 9.4 runs per over if they were to be victorious.

 

Sami struck twice in the 17th over, first taking the wicket of Thirimanne who was caught behind by Ansar and then clean bowling Perera with a delivery that seemed too quick for the batsman. With 3 overs remaining, Sri Lanka needed 33 runs.

 

Lokuarachchi was stumped by Ansar off the bowling of Ajmal. With 12 deliveries remaining, Sri Lanka needed 30 runs, with only two wickets in hand. Sami then dismissed number 9 Senanayake who top edged it to cover where Tanvir was waiting for the catch.

 

Heading into the final over, Sri Lanka required an unlikely 26 runs for victory. Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, Mathews was caught at long on by Afridi on the 2nd delivery of the over. Sri Lanka were all out for 9 and Pakistan won by 23 runs. Both sides gave opposing performances from the 1st T20I. With this victory for Pakistan, Hafeez picked up his first win as captain and Pakistan levelled the two match T20I series 1-1.

 

[U]Fall of wickets [/U]

 

1-19 (Sangakkara, 3.2 ov)

2-19 (Kulasekara, 3.6 ov)

3-39 (Dilshan, 7.5 ov)

4-62 (Kapugedera, 11.3 ov)

5-76 (Chandimal, 14.5 ov)

6-85 (Thirimanne, 16.2 ov)

7-90 (Perera, 16.4 ov)

8-91 (Lokuarachchi, 17.2 ov)

9-94 (Senanayake, 18.2 ov)

10-99 (Mathews, 19.2 ov)

 

[B][U]Summary[/U][/B]

 

Pakistan will be happy with this result after their abject performance in the first T20I. They’ve bounced back very well today, and consequently this is the lowest total Pakistan have ever successfully defended in T20I’s.

 

Sangakarra and Dilshan started the innings well, played some great cricketing shots, but a poor shot from Sangakarra and a change in the line-up with Kulasekara coming in at number 3 seemed to lead to their demise.

 

Afridi is named Man of the Match for his 52 not out as well as picking up two wickets. Sohail Tanvir picks up the award for Man of the Series, which he definitely deserved.

 

We now move on to the ODI series which begins on Thursday and the momentum is with Pakistan. This T20I series has seen two indifferent performances by each side and should the ODI series resemble what we’ve seen in these two matches, we should be in for a thrilling series in longer version of the shorter formats.