KARACHI, Jan 20: Pakistan gained psychological edge over Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka on Tuesday after intelligent pace bowling from Rao Iftikhar and Umar Gul and a brilliant 100 from Salman Butt set up an effortless eight-wicket victory in the first One-day International here at the National Stadium.

The duo claimed seven wickets between them to restrict the visitors to an insufficient 219 in far more favourable batting conditions than Sri Lanka had encountered in the recent triangular tournament in Bangladesh. Salman masterminded the chase with a well-paced century first ton against Sri Lanka as he and Khurram Manzoor (83) neutralized whatever tricks Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis had up their sleeves in an opening partnership of 168 inside 37 overs.

Salman continued his fondness for sub-continental opponents in bringing up his eighth century in 61 One-day Internationals, striking 13 boundaries in an undefeated 100 off 117 balls. Five of the 24-year-old left-hander’s previous seven centuries came against India and the remaining versus Bangladesh.

The right-handed Khurram looked shaky at the start but gained in confidence as the overs ticked by and tackled the unorthodox Mendis pretty well and scored all five boundaries conceded by the mystery spinner.

Like his senior partner, Khurram also paced his innings nicely as the openers were unafraid to go down the track to the spinners. Khurram’s 128-ball knock contained nine hits to the fence.

Younis Khan came and went before Shoaib Malik and Salman, the Man-of-the-Match, completed the final rites with 25 deliveries to spare.

Malik applauded the manner in which his young openers responded to the modest chase after the fine work put in by Umar Gul and Rao Iftikhar.

“I thought both of them batted extremely well. The most impressive thing about their batting was that they played Mendis and Murali on merit and waited for the right deliveries to score,” the Pakistan skipper said. “But credit should also go to Umar Gul and Rao Iftikhar for restricting Sri Lanka to a score which was always within our grasp. Sri Lanka could have scored more after a fine start. However, Rao and Umar did a great job to put us back on track.”

Rao Iftikhar took four wickets for the second successive game and improved his effort in Pakistan’s previous ODI outing – against the West Indies in Abu Dhabi last November – by taking a career-best 4-36 in 8.2 overs.

But it was Umar Gul who engineered Pakistan’s dominance after Tillekeratne Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya had set the tone with a first-wicket stand of 71 in 53 deliveries while taking advantage of unthreatening opening overs from both ends as Shoaib Akhtar and Sohail Tanvir seldom produced wicket-taking deliveries.

Recalled to the limited-overs squad, Dilshan, who was playing his first one-dayer since August 2008, capitalized on the opportunity to open in place of the out-of-form Upul Tharanga by striking seven boundaries in a breezy 42 off 33 balls and on the way passed 3,000 One-day International runs.

Although ground fielding was efficient but Pakistan’s catching was not up to the mark. Younis Khan dropped a straightforward chance at slip to reprieve Dilshan on 17 off Shoaib Akhtar. Later, Shahid Afridi failed to grasp an easier one after Jayasuriya (33) flayed a Rao Iftikhar full toss in the cover region.

But luckily those lapses didn’t cost Pakistan much as Umar Gul took care of Dilshan who pulled a catch to Salman Butt deep on the onside while Jayasuriya was found stuck in his crease to a well-pitched delivery and was trapped in front, although the veteran left-hander shook his head when umpire Nadeem Ghauri gave the verdict in Umar Gul’s favour.

Shoaib, used in two spells, looked rusty and was clearly lacking in rhythm in his first one-dayer in 14 months, and it was hardly a surprise to see him go for 43 runs in seven overs.

Jayawardene’s run of low scores continued on Tuesday when he edged Rao Iftikhar to wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal for one.

The skipper, who struggled during the tours of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, has mustered only 233 runs since the Asia Cup in 14 one-dayers at 19.25 with just two fifties.

But Jayawardene remained unfazed about the lack of runs from his bat.

“I guess it’s a bad patch that I’m going through at the moment. To me, it doesn’t concern me more than the team playing well. We have to win tomorrow [Wednesday] to get back in the series,” Jayawardene noted. “All credit to Pakistan for outplaying us today. But we are definitely capable of doing well something which we didn’t do in this game.”

Kumar Sangakkara was probably one exception in the Sri Lankan innings as he battled through 70 balls to emerge as the top-scorer with 49 (four fours) as the last six wickets yielded just 49 runs.

The second match here on Wednesday also starts at noon.

Scoreboard

SRI LANKA:

T.M. Dilshan c Salman b Umar Gul 42

S.T. Jayasuriya lbw b Umar Gul 38

K.C. Sangakkara c Salman b Rao 49

M, Jayawardene c Kamran b Rao 1

C.K. Kapugedera b Afridi 27

J. Mubarak run out 8

M.F. Maharoof c Misbah b Malik 11

T. Thushara c Kamran b Rao 0

N. Kulasekara c Kamran b Umar Gul 24

M. Muralitharan not out 7

B.A.W. Mendis b Rao 1

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-6, NB-2) 11

TOTAL (all out, 45.2 overs) 219

FALL OF WKTS: 1-71, 2-86, 3-91, 4-143, 5-170, 6-176, 7-176, 8-209, 9-211.

BOWLING: Shoaib Akhtar 7-0-43-0; Sohail Tanvir 5-0-35-0 (1nb, 2w); Rao Iftikhar 8.2-1-42-4 (1nb); Umar Gul 9-0-30-3 (1w); Shahid Afridi 10-1-47-1 (3w); Shoaib Malik 6-0-19-1.

PAKISTAN:

Khurram Manzoor c and b Murali 83

Salman Butt not out 100

Younis Khan c Mendis b Maharoof 20

Shoaib Malik not out 11

EXTRAS (LB-4, W-1, NB-1) 6

TOTAL (for two wkts, 45.5 overs) 220

FALL OF WKTS: 1-168, 2-205.

DID NOT BAT: Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Sohail Tanvir, Shoaib Akhtar, Rao Iftikhar, Umar Gul.

BOWLING: Kulasekara 8-1-35-0; Thushara 8-0-31-0 (1w); Maharoof 7.5-0-44-1; Muralitharan10-1-42-1(1nb); Mendis 7-0-41-0; Jayasuriya 3-0-16-0; Dilshan 2-0-7-0.

RESULT: Pakistan won by eight wickets.

UMPIRES: Nadeem Ghauri (Pakistan) and N.J. Llong (England).

TV UMPIRE: Ahsan Raza (Pakistan).

MATCH REFEREE: B.C. Broad (England).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Salman Butt/Rao Iftikhar.

SECOND MATCH: Karachi, Wednesday.

THIRD MATCH: Lahore, Saturday.