Rain dampens Lankan hopes

Sa'adi THAWFEEQ

CRICKET: Evening rains that had been threatening for the past few days came down in all its fury to force a no-result in the opening match of the one-day international series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

Sri Lanka had restricted Pakistan to a moderate total of 201-8 with a brilliant display on the field and the players had gone off for the break when the rain clouds that had been hovering around finally gave away to drench the stadium and leave large pools of water on the ground.

The match was officially called off at 8 p.m. with no hope of it resuming at all, not in the state the ground was after the deluge.

The result left Sri Lanka still struggling to avoid playing in the play-off for the Champions trophy. The odds have now grown to Sri Lanka having to win the remaining two matches and at the same time hoping that England lose both their matches to India.

Sri Lanka are currently placed seventh in the ICC one-day standings with Pakistan in fifth position.

Sri Lanka began the series on a high note with a bowling and fielding performances that had the free-scoring Pakistani batsmen struggling to get the ball off the square.

Put into bat first Pakistan could not get the momentum into their batting as they lost the first wicket at eight in the fourth over and at the halfway stage had posted only 76 runs on the board.

Two early wickets for Farveez Maharoof who bowled both Akmal and Malik with inswingers pushed Pakistan onto the back foot. When Salman Butt was dismissed in the 21st over for a labouring 26 off 63 balls, Pakistan needed a partnership of some sorts to come up with a competitive total.

Mohammed Yousuf (46 off 76 balls) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (24 off 39 balls) provided one briefly putting together 43 off 68 balls before Sri Lanka broke through again by having the Pakistan captain brilliantly caught by a diving Sangakkara in front of first slip.

Leg-spinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi got into the act to grab the wickets of Yousuf and Afridi as Pakistan were sent spinning to 127-6. Vice captain Younis Khan took it upon himself to hold up one end and in Abdul Razzak found an able ally.

The pair added 52 off 65 balls for the seventh wicket before Razzaq holed out to Tharanga at long off after scoring 32 with two sixes.

Younis' innings (41 off 47 balls) was finally terminated in the final over as he tried to force the pace and was bowled leg stump by Prasad giving the bowler his first wicket of the innings.

He profited from a dropped catch to Tharanga at 16 to take Pakistan closer to the 200-run mark, which they eventually achieved off the last two balls.

Prasad proved to be the most expensive of the Sri Lankan bowlers conceding 54 runs in his 10 overs.

Of the five bowlers used only Muralitharan went wicketless but he was economical conceding only 33 runs. Local boy Maharoof gave the Maligawatte spectators plenty to cheer by finishing with the wonderful figures of three for 24, while Lokuarachchi continued to impress carrying on his fine batting performance in Bangladesh with a bowling performance to match it taking three wickets.

The second match of the series will be played at the same venue tomorrow. It will be a day match.

PAKISTAN 

Salman Butt c Lokuarachchi b Malinga		26 
Kamran Akmal b Maharoof				 5 
Shoaib Malik b Maharoof				 7 
M. Yousuf c Dilshan b Lokuarachchi		47 
I-ul-Haq c Sangakkara b Maharoof		23
Younis Khan b Prasad				41
Shahid Afridi lbw b Lokuarachchi		 2 
A. Razzaq c Tharanga b Lokuarachchi		32 
Rana Naveed not out  			  	 4 
Rao Ifthikar not out				 1 
Extras b-3, lb-2, nb-5, w-3)			13 
TOTAL (8 wkts  50 overs, 227 mins)		201

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-8 (Akmal), 2-27 (Malik), 3-54 (Butt), 4-107 (Inzamam),
 5-121 (Yousuf), 6-127 (Afridi), 7-127 (Afridi), 8-198 (Younis). 

DID NOT BAT: Mohammed Asif.

BOWLING: Malinga 10-1-38-1 (1w), Maharoof 10-1-24-3 (1w, 1nb), 
Prasad 10-0-54-1 (1w, 4nb), Muralitharan 10-1-33-0, Lokuarachchi 10-0-47-3.

SRI LANKA:
 W.U. Tharanga, M.S. Atapattu, K.C. Sangakkara, D.P.M.D. Jayawardene, 
T.M. Dilshan, R.P. Arnold, M.F. Maharoof, K.S. Lokuarachchi, 
M. Muralitharan, S.L. Malinga, K.T.G.D. Prasad.