Afridi legend mows the Lankans down
From nowhere the legend of Shahid Afridi struck upon the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium to take Pakistan to an unlikely win from a perilous 40 for 5 and succeeding to bring down the run chase to a mere six runs from the last over to romp home by just one wicket in the second T20 encounter, yesterday.
Shahid Afridi regained his form to take away Sri Lanka’s win - Pic by Amila Gamage
Pakistan with six runs to win from six balls ended the game in style with Imad Wasim slamming a six off pacie Binura Fernando to make a clean 2-0 sweep. Pakistan’s run chase was made tough in the first three overs of batting by left arm pacie Binura Fernando who dealt a double blow in his first two overs dismissing the openers Mukthar Ahmed and Ahmed Shehzad with the Pakistan’s score on 16. From there Pakistan panicked as two unnecessary run outs that of Mohammad Hafeez and Umar Akmal saw them slide to 40 for 4 in the seventh over and they lost another wicket at the same score.
It was skipper Shahid Afridi and Mohammed Rizwan who together rescued the Pakistanis with Afridi being severe. The electrifying 37 ball partnership of 61 runs laid the foundation for the sides’ victory. Afridi’s knock of 45 off just 22 balls that included a boundary and four towering sixes was the turning point. Later another blistering knock by Anwar Ali added the final pump in for Pakistan’s win.
Ali slammed a 17 ball knock of 46 inclusive of three boundaries and four sixes was partnered by Imad Wasim with the duo adding 58 runs in only 27 balls for the eighth wicket and when Ali was dismissed the Pakistanis were just six runs away from victory. Earlier Sri Lanka skipper Lasith Malinga winning the toss and electing to take first lease of the wicket was given a okay start by openers Kusal Perera and T.M. Dilshan who together put on 24 runs in just 16 balls before being separated with Dilshan’s dismissal.
Kusal playing his usual flamboyant style of strokes was severe but was unfortunate as he misread a delivery of Shoaib Malik and had his stumps disturbed having made a 14 ball knock of 19 runs. Shehan Jayasuriya one of the two players to make his T20 debut showed that he has the temperament and patience to play big cricket playing with confidence as he picked up runs at will.
Together with Dhananjaya de Silva he added 29 runs for the third wicket and then followed it up with a 26 runs stand for the fifth wicket with Milinda Siriwardena before being dismissed making a 40 in 32 balls that comprised three boundaries and two sixes.
With Sri Lanka’s score on 90 for 5 in the 13th over the innings was bolstered by Siriwardena and Chamara Kapugedera who together tore into the Pakistan bowling attack.
The duo sent the bowlers on a leather hunt with Kapugedera in particular being nasty paying scant respect to the opposition. The pair posted their 50 runs partnership for the sixth wicket in just 33 balls before left arm pacie Mohammad Irfan separated them to end their valuable 55 runs partnership.
Dasun Shanaka the other T20 debutant joining Kapugedera gave his senior partner the support when he held on from one side for Kapugedera to do the scoring. The pair added a valuable 27 runs for the seventh wicket as Sri Lanka’s innings came to an end in the last delivery of the innings to finish with a challenging score of 172 for 7.
Pakistan with this series win leap two places up in the T20 rankings from fifth to third spot while Sri Lanka will remain on top.