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Sri Lanka overcome Pakistan

Our Correspondent

Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by five wickets at Galle in the first match of the Singer triangular series that also includes South Africa.

Put into bat by Sanath Jayasuriya, Pakistan got off to a terrible start when they lost Imran Nazir (0), Shahid Afridi (5) and Yousuf Youhana (0) with only 22 runs on the board. They crumbled further to 53/6 with Nuwan Zoysa being the main wrecker, taking three of the first five wickets to fall.

However, Inzamam-ul-Haq (83 n.o.) rescued the Pakistan innings through a 69 run partnership with Waqar Younis (22). Inzamam played a brilliant fighting innings, which was studded with six boundaries. Thanks to him, Pakistan managed to make 164 for 8 in their allotted 45 overs. Zoysa, easily the pick of the Sri Lankan bowlers, finished with 4 wickets for 34 runs in nine overs.

Sri Lanka came out to bat and lost newcomer Gunawardene to Waqar Younis in the first over itself. Jayasuriya too didn't last long and soon Sri Lanka were 19 for 2. However, Marvan Atapattu (62) carried on his fine form from the Test series and slowly but surely began to guide Sri Lanka to victory. He shared crucial partnerships of 46 with Jayawardene (14) and 66 with K. Sangakkara (35). When he fell to Abdur Razzaq in the 34th over, the match was virtually over.

ussel Arnold and Dharmasena took care of the remaining runs without any further alarms.

For his fine bowling performance that ensured Pakistan didn't get a big score, Nuwan Zoysa was declared man-of-the-match.

The biggest plus to come out of this match for Sri Lanka was the batting of debutant wicketkeeper-batsman K. Sangakkara. Drafted into the team as Romesh Kaluwitharana's replacement, the 23-year-old looked very confident and assured in his first match. His innings featured four boundaries and he was quick to punish anything loose. It was a fine performance from him and from the entire Sri Lankan team.