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Sri Lanka outplay Pakistan yet again

Roshan Paul

With what Ravi Shastri described as "a thoroughly professional performance", Sri Lanka secured their position in the finals of the Singer Triangular Series with a six wicket victory over Pakistan.

The Lankans outplayed their opponents in every department of the game. Bar Azhar Mahmood's late-order pyrotechnics, nothing especially stood out in this game. It was simply an excellent all-round display from the Sri Lankans and they deserved to win.

Sri Lanka played an unchanged team but Pakistan made two changes. Shabbir Ahmed replaced the fined and suspended Waqar Younis and Shoaib Malik came in for Mushtaq Ahmed. Again, Pakistan took a gamble by leaving themselves no bowling options beyond the five bowlers.

After the way his side collapsed while chasing a total yesterday, Moin Khan opted to bat first on winning the toss. His openers didn't give him the same start, however, and both were back in the pavilion in the first five overs. Imran Nazir ran himself out and Chaminda Vaas bowled Saeed Anwar. Though the ball was a beauty, TV replays showed that Vaas had clearly overstepped.

Younis Khan and Inzamam-Ul-Haq set about consolidating. Inzamam (47, 66b, 2x4) looked in great touch until he top-edged a sweep off Jayasuriya with the score at 101. Surprisingly, Pakistan were again troubled by the spinners, who managed to slow down the run rate quite considerably. In frustration, after a painstaking 59 off 102 balls, Younis Khan attempted a wild slog and was bowled by Jayasuriya. Youhana and Moin Khan both fell to the spinners while trying to accelerate and Pakistan went into the last four overs at 195/6.

At this point, Jayasuriya inexplicably brought his fast bowlers back on. The spinners had been bowling excellently and, in hindsight, this was a serious tactical error. Azhar Mahmood, who had also been fined by John Reid for abetting Waqar Younis in his ball tampering endeavours, loves the fast bowlers and he launched a ferocious assault upon them. His 43 runs came off only 25 balls and included four boundaries and one six. Thus, Pakistan went from a potentially mediocre total to a very competitive one.

Good starts batting second have been the feature of this competition and this time was no exception. If Jayasuriya, despite a massive six over cover, was slightly streaky, Avishka Gunawardene was brutal. Quick to punish anything even slightly wide, the two left-handers took the score to 96 in the first 16 overs before Razzaq castled Gunawardene (47, 50b, 6x4) with a quicker one.

Man-of-the-match Jayasuriya (54, 81b, 6x4, 1x6) was very fortunate to survive as long as he did. He was dropped by Moin, who also muffed the simplest of stumping chances. Eventually, Moin managed to keep one in his gloves and Jayasuriya departed. It was not one of his better innings, however.

Marvan Atapattu has two hundreds and four fifties in his last six innings against Pakistan. He looked good today as well while making 29 but then edged a ball from Shabbir Ahmed to Moin who, mercifully, caught it this time. The glovework of one-day cricket's most successful wicketkeeper has left much to be desired in this competition. Perhaps the enormous amount of cricket Pakistan have been playing as well as the dual responsibilities of captaining and keeping wickets are taking their toll on him.

In a match in which eight batsmen crossed 35 but none passed 60, the most pleasing batting came from Mahela Jayawardene (49, 55b, 3x4, 1x6). Under pressure to make some runs, the elegant right hander played a little gem, the highlight of which was a gorgeous straight six off Shabbir Ahmed. His driving too was delightful to watch and by the time he was beaten by a Razzaq inswinger, he had done enough to ensure that Sri Lanka's march to victory would be reasonably comfortable; having shared partnerships of 41 with Atapattu and 52 with the increasingly impressive Sangakkara (36, 47b, 3x4).

However, a mixture of tight bowling and unnecessarily panicky batting from Sangakkara and Arnold made the match much closer than it should have been. An expensive 49th over from Razzaq made things a lot more comfortable for the Sri Lankans and, in the end, they won with four balls to spare

It was another fine performance from the Sri Lankans. This young team (only four of the World Cup winning squad are still in the team) gets more impressive with each performance. The new young batsmen are handling the pressure of international cricket with aplomb and this augurs very well for their cricket.

Though it hasn't been totally obvious as yet, it does seem that Pakistan are missing the extra bowling option that Shahid Afridi gives them. I wonder if Moin would have given Shabbir Ahmed his full ten overs if he had another option. Granted their batting hasn't been at its best, but they do bat very deep and it might make sense to bring Afridi into the side in place of a regular batsman. However, with Younis Khan being top scorer in this match, it's hard to see him being dropped.

Sri Lanka's place in the finals is, thus, assured and Pakistan will have to play very well and hope that South Africa don't if they are to stay in the tournament. Moin Khan has been harping on the fact that Pakistan are accustomed to coming from behind to win tournaments. It's time for him to put his money where his mouth is; though perhaps I shouldn't quite put it that way.