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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Tharanga Paranavitana, a solid left-hand opening batsman with a sound technique scored his second successive half-century of the tournament to guide Sri Lanka to a comprehensive 94-run victory over Pakistan in the Videocon Asian Emerging Teams third match played at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

While the two Asian giants India and Pakistan have struggled to get to terms with the seaming pitches, Sri Lanka's batsmen showed that it didn't hold terrors of any nature to them by rattling up an impressive 251-8 off 50 overs after being invited to bat first and then dismissing Pakistan for 157 in 36.2 overs.

By the end of the first round robin matches, Sri Lanka who picked up another bonus point yesterday, topped the standings with 12 points, while Pakistan had six and India none. All three teams have played two matches each.

The second round matches commence on Wednesday after a rest day today. Sri Lanka's batting was anchored by 21-year-old Paranavitana, a product of St. Mary's College, Kegalle. He followed up his unbeaten 54 against India on Saturday with an equally compelling knock yesterday. Pacing his innings out according to the nature of the pitch, Paranavitana took 100 balls to complete his half-century which included just a solitary boundary. He however took a few liberties thereafter to strike a further four fours before holing out to cover in the 43rd over with Sri Lanka on 195. Overall, he faced 134 balls and struck five fours.

Paranavithana shared in three half-century partnerships with Upul Tharanga (29), Jeevan Mendis (26) and skipper Malintha Gajanayake (14).

Shortly after his dismissal, Sri Lanka's innings lost its way as five wickets tumbled for 40 runs off 32 balls. But Sri Lanka had by then posted a total sufficient enough for their bowlers to bowl at. It assumed imposing proportions when the Sri Lanka's three-pronged seam attack of Tharanga Lakshitha, Nuwan Kulasekara and Lasith Malinga made early inroads into the Pakistan batting reducing them to 89-6 by the 20th over.

The only noteworthy partnership of their innings was when wicket-keeper Amin-ur-Rehman joined opener Usman Tariq. The pair produced a stand of exactly 50 runs off 54 balls for the seventh wicket. But Usman's dismissal for 76 at the start of the 29th over ended all hopes of Pakistan holding out till the end. Usman playing the anchor role for his side made 76 off 85 balls with nine fours before mistiming an ondrive off Kulasekara to give Gajanayake an easy catch at short midwicket.

Pakistan further compounded their task by having two overs docked off for maintaining a slow over rate. The Pakistani seamers who had bowled so splendidly on Sunday against India were guilty of sending down 31 wides yesterday which contributed to a princely total of 47 extras during the Sri Lankan innings. "With the Pakistanis bowling so many wides in the first 10 overs we not under any pressure to take any undue risks because our run rate was a healthy five an over," said Sri Lanka coach Champaka Ramanayake.

"It is not only our fast bowlers who are bowling very well, but today we saw our batsmen get into top gear. It is very encouraging to see a team excel in these two departments," he said.

Ramanayake was full of praise for the batting of man-of-the-match Paranavitane whom he said was given instructions to bat out the full 50 overs in every match. "He did it almost to perfection yesterday getting out in the 43rd over," said Ramanayake.

Pakistan coach Naveed Anjum said his players never played upto their potential and added: "I am wondering whether they are still celebrating the victory over India on Sunday.:

"They looked tired and back to back matches are always difficult especially in this heat," said Anjum.

"Not only did we bowl very badly giving the opposition an extra five overs, but our batting was also not up to the mark. The total of 252 was easily gettable on this pitch but the shot selection of some of our top order batsmen was very poor," he said.

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