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| Thursday, 28 October 2004 |
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Odds heavily against Lanka at Karachi Chris Dhambarage reporting from Pakistan KARACHI, Pakistan. Wednesday, Sri Lanka will return to the National Stadium in Karachi here on Thursday after a break of four years to play the second and deciding test match against Pakistan with the odds heavily against them. The islanders crashed to a heavy defeat losing the third and final test match during the 1999/2000 series by a massive margin of 222 runs. The only consolation for Sri Lanka was that they went on to win the series by two matches to one under the captaincy of Sanath Jayasuriya. This time too they are almost in a similar situation and are one up in the series having pulled off the first test by a comprehensive margin of 201 runs at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad. This was also Sri Lanka's biggest win against Pakistan in terms of runs while beating the previous victory of 144 runs recorded at Sialkot in 1995. The Lankans had a tough task of chasing 451 runs to win that match and they eventually collapsed to 228 runs in their second innings. However the exchanges were even after the first two days of play where a total of 23 wickets fell while showing signs of an early finish to the game. However the wicket helped the batsmen more during the third and fourth days and the Pakistanis took full advantage to pile up a massive total of 421 runs in their second innings. Inzamam ul Haq the present captain of the Pakistan team had a memorable game where he scored a matchwinning knock of 138 runs following his top score of 86 in the first innings. Inzamam went on to collect the man of the match award and will be more than keen to produce a repeat performance with his side battling to level the series. Inzamam and Younis Khan who made a splendid 61 added 124 runs for the sixth wicket and completely sealed the game in Pakistan's favour. Skipper Moin Khan stroked an elegant 70 and put on 88 runs for the eighth wicket with Waqar Younis as Sri Lanka were left with a stiff target of chasing 451 runs on a turning wicket. Sri Lanka were rocked by a superb opening burst from Waqar Younis and Mohammad Akram as they lost half of the side for only 86 runs. Wicket keeper batsman Romesh Kaluwitharana, Chaminda Vaas and Ravindra Pushpakumara provided some late resistance with the bat before Shahid Afridi polished off the tail with a three wicket haul. In the first innings too Kaluwitharana rescued the team while scoring a defiant knock of 42 batting at number six after Russel Arnold had hit a top score of 48. But Sri Lanka were dismissed for 227 while conceding a first innings lead of 19 runs. The game also turned out to be a memorable one for off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who took a match haul of eight wickets and also shared the man of the series award along with Waqar Younis. Muralitharan is of course still recovering from a shoulder injury and the other surviving members from that test match are openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawaredena, Chaminda Vaas and Romesh Kaluwitharana. Pakistan will have three surviving members from that test match namely Inzamam ul Haq, Yousuf Youhanna and Shoaib Akhtar. Pakistan 256 (Shahid Afridi 74, Inzamam-ul-Haq 86, M. Muralitharan 4-89) and 421 (Inzamam 138, Younis Khan 61, Moin Khan 70, R. Pushpakumara 4-66, Muralitharan 4-107) Sri Lanka 227 (R. Arnold 48, R. Kaluwitharana 42, Shoaib Akhtar 3-52) and 228 (R. Pushpakumara 44, Shahid Afridi 3-50) |
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