Spinner Ajantha Mendis took four wickets and Kumar Sangakkara carved a meticulous century as Sri Lanka beat Pakistan by 64 runs in their Asian Cup super league match at the National Stadium on Sunday.
Mendis (4-47) foxed the home batsmen, who were facing him for the first time, with his neat variation as Pakistan were restricted to 238 for nine in reply to Sri Lanka's 302 for seven.
The Sri Lankan total included Sangakkara's ninth hundred and came despite left-arm paceman Sohail Tanvir taking a career-best 5-48.
Sangakkara, who struck ten fours and a six, shared a third-wicket stand of 88 with Chamara Kapugedera (43) and added 93 for the fourth wicket with Chamara Silva (46) to put the unbeaten Sri Lankans on the road to a commanding total.
In reply for Pakistan, Misbah-ul-Haq played a gallant knock of 76 from 70 balls, his highest one-day score to give some hope to Pakistan but Mendis, who took 5-22 in the previous game against the United Arab Emirates, was virtually unplayable.
Misbah shared a 66-run stand from 64 balls for the seventh wicket with wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed (19) before being bowled by Mendis in the 47th over.
The other productive partnership came from captain Shoaib Malik (52) and Younis Khan (47), who put on 72 after opener Salman Butt was bowled first ball of the innings by Chaminda Vaas playing across the line.
Malik, who opened the innings, batted patiently for 79 balls as Pakistan struggled to force the pace, losing three key wickets in the space of 4.5 overs to suffer a middle order slump that left them on 153 for six.
Younis was caught at wide mid-on by Muralitharan trying to pull paceman Nuwan Kulasekera having hit seven fours in his 60-ball knock.
Mendis was introduced into the attack in the 24th over and it was clear the batsmen were not picking him even on the flat pitch as he bowled a mixture of off-spinners, leg spinners and sliders.
He trapped Mohammad Yousuf (19) leg before in the 26th over with a straight one and then had Malik stumped to leave Pakistan on 133 for five.
Sanath Jayasuriya struck in the next over having all-rounder Shahid Afridi caught at long off by substitute Jehan Mubarak for a first ball duck.
Debutant Mansoor Amjad was trapped leg before by Mendis for five.
The defeat made Pakistan's task of qualifying for the final more difficult from the four-team super league stage.
India and Sri Lanka have won both their opening games in the super league stage while Pakistan and Bangladesh have each played one match and lost one. Pakistan play India in their next game of the tournament in Karachi on Wednesday.
