Pakistan wreck Sri Lanka in fifth one-dayer

Ranjan ANANDAPPA in UAE

There was neither consolation nor comfort for Sri Lanka as they were beaten by 3 wickets in the fifth and final One Day International match played at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

Pakistan who had already won the series confirmed their superiority with their final tally of 4-1 in the five match series.

Pakistan chasing a relatively easy victory target of 218 on a wicket, which held no terrors, reached their target 219 in 47.2 overs. Umar Akmal (61 off 61 deliveries) with 8 fours and Misbah-Ul-Haq (66 off 99 deliveries with five fours) assured a win with some sensible batting.

Sri Lanka’s bowling attack was not convincing enough on a pitch which had lost it’s zest and the two experienced players, skipper Misbah-UL-Haq and Umar Akmal took the side towards a reasonable range of victory with Akmal putting the finishing touches in style with an unbeaten 61. At the beginning of the Innings Pakistan lost a couple of early wickets of Mohamed Hafeez who was snapped up by Sangakkara off Dilhara Fernando and Asad Shafiq lbw to Mathews in his first over. Jeevan Mendis ignited some life into his side when he got two quick wickets in consecutive deliveries trapping, both Younus Khan and Shoib Malik lbw and was in line for a hat-trick. But Umar Akmal and Misbah-UL-Haq avoided further alarms adding 84 runs.

Dilhara Fernando (2for 47) and spinner Jeevan Mendis 3 for 36 were the wicket takers for thre Lankans.

Sri Lanka’s batting which had rarely functioned at full throttled through out the tour once again caved in to a modest 218 in their prescribed 50 overs when they won toss and elected to bat first.

Besides Kumara Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews who added 120 runs for the fifth wicket, the rest gave an another dismal batting performance after Sangakkara (78) and Mathews (61) laying a reasonable foundation to build on. But the middle order once again failed to capitalize on the advantage and left Pakistan to get 219 runs on a pitch which looked good for batting.

Soon after the match, Dilshan told the media that the team would have to sit and discuss matters on several areas of the game prior to the South African tour which begins in three weeks time. “Before we go back to South Africa, we have a domestic season. Players know the mistakes they made, they should rectify those and be ready for the tour and that’s what in their minds at the moment. We should have won the third and fourth matches but lack of finish deprived us of a win. We lost after being in winning positions. The starts were good, but could not capitalize on that. We should discuss the remedy to improve this area before the South African tour” said Dilshan.

“It is a heartening sign that Angel Matthews could bowl now after an injury. He is fit now and will be very useful during the coming South African tour” Dilshan added.

When asked whether captaining the side and the Cricket Board affairs is effecting the team and his batting Dilshan said that “It is not bothering me, but I am keen to get back into the run scoring process. When I first took over the captaincy against England I scored runs in England. But unfortunately I broke my finger and I was unable to play for one and a half months. We are playing seven batsmen, but at the moment only Sangakkara is doing the bulk of the scoring. He is in great form, scoring in the ODI’s and Tests. Mahela and Mathews are back in form.

We will have to improve a few areas at the top of the order. If the other opener and myself could get a good start we could aim at a big total. Even today we were short of another 30 or 40 runs and if we had got that it would have been a different game” said the Sri Lankan captain.

Dilshan concluded saying that he will try to win the T20, which is scheduled for today at Abu Dhabi.

“We beat Australia 2-0 last time and we are ranked as number two, and a win here should take us to number one in this format of the game.”