Sri Lanka fight back to level Pakistan series
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PALLEKELE: Dinesh Chandimal hit an unbeaten 48 to guide Sri Lanka to a series-levelling two-wicket victory over Pakistan in the second one-day international in Pallekele on Wednesday.
Chasing Pakistan's challenging 287-8, the hosts recovered from 159-5 to post 288-8 with 11 balls to spare in a tense finish to the day-night match.
Pakistan v Sri Lanka 2nd ODI - As it happened
Chandimal led the fightback by adding 37 for the sixth wicket with Milinda Siriwardana (26), 52 for the seventh with debutant Sachith Pathirana (33) and 37 for the eighth with Thisara Perera.
Perera was eighth out when three more runs were needed for victory, but Lasith Malinga kept his cool amid mounting tension before Chandimal hit the winning run.
Pakistan had won the first match in Dambulla by six wickets last Saturday to take the lead in the five-match series.
Ninth-ranked Pakistan need a series win to stay in contention for a place in the eight-nation Champions Trophy in England in 2017.
Sri Lanka, currently ranked fifth, are assured of taking part in the tournament.
Opener Kusal Perera gave Sri Lanka a rollicking start with a breezy 68 off 25 balls that included 13 boundaries and two sixes.
The left-hander raced to 50 off just 17 balls, just one delivery short of equalling South African AB de Villiers' record for the fastest half-century in 16 balls.
Kusal matched his countryman and idol Sanath Jayasuriya's feat of a 17-ball 50 as he put on 92 for the first wicket with Tillakaratne Dilshan off just 8.2 overs.
But just when he appeared to have the Pakistani attack at his mercy, Kusal gifted his wicket by pulling fast bowler Mohammad Irfan to Yasir Shah on the square-leg fence.
Dilshan's 47 carried Sri Lanka to a commanding 140-1 in the 19th over when Pakistan hit back with four wickets for 19 runs, three of them in successive overs in the space of four runs.
Pakistan's innings revolved around three half-centuries, including a 52 off 38 balls by Mohammad Rizwan towards the end that boosted the total.
Azhar Ali played a captain's innings of 79 and senior pro Shoaib Malik made a run-a-ball 51, the pair adding 83 for the fourth wicket after the tourists won the toss and elected to bat.
But Rizwan stole the show with five boundaries and a six as the tourists plundered 88 runs in the last 10 overs.
Anwar Ali, who put on 56 for the seventh wicket with Rizwan, returned unbeaten on 29 off 20 balls. Pathirana and Malinga claimed two wickets each.
The third match will be played at the Premadasa stadium in Colombo on Sunday.
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Comments (37) Closed
Jul 15, 2015 11:31pm
Pakistan does not deserve to be a part of the Champions Trophy.
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Jul 15, 2015 11:36pm
We had a good total on the board, but gave away too many runs in the first 10 overs. Good close game nevertheless.
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Jul 15, 2015 11:37pm
Srilanka won the match just because of poor captaincy of slowest player on earth Azhar Ali .
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Jul 15, 2015 11:38pm
Credit to the innings by pererra lest it was a difficult task. An excellent fielding effort by Pak,not there forte otherwise,and weak captaincy showed by azhar while defending a huge target. I am sure Ms dhoni wouldn't let it go with six wickets down and 125 runs still remaining.
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Jul 15, 2015 11:40pm
Why Pakistan selectors/management/captain keep on forgetting to play 4(four) specialist bowlers in ODI. Why we keep on forgetting the sayings of Imran Khan and Wasim Akram "To win we need to take wickets". With Hafeez, Shoaib Malik and Anwar Ali we have too many all rounders. Unlike 20/20 there is no place of utility players in ODI squad. For the win should have played wicket taking bowlers like Imran Khan or Zulfiqar Babar!!!
So SAD to see the same old blunders especially when your team is ranked at # 9. No wonder like Hockey demise Pak ODI cricket is no one but management and selectors.
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Jul 15, 2015 11:43pm
This shows the lack of experience of the captain Azhar Ali. He should have done something out of the ordinary when Sri-Lanka went on a flying start, even towards the end he over bowled Rahat Ali and under bowled Anwar Ali and Shoaib Malik.
Pakistan is almost out of the Champions Trophy thanks to to poor team selection and the coach Waqar Younus.
The cricket players who were successful during the A-team topur of Sri-Lanka should have been given chanses in ODI as well. Like Shan Masood, Fawad Alam etc., They must try Mukhtar Ahmad in the remaining matches in place of Shahzad and try the new comer Bilal Asif in place of run leaking Rahat Ali.
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Jul 15, 2015 11:45pm
Once again Azhar Ali lets his team down after setting in and throwing his wicket away when his team needed him to get into 4th gear.
He's definitely another Misbah in the making or as I shall call him MINI MISBAH, plays for his average oppose to the needs of the team.As the saying goes too many paindoos spoil the broth, if Waqar wasn't enough they had to make Azhar the captain. Just like Misbah put an end to the career of Mohammad Yousuf I have an eerie feeling that Azhar has already started working towards ending the career of Sarfraz Ahmed.
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Jul 15, 2015 11:46pm
I continue to believe that Pakistan cricket team will either continue humiliating themselves and the country or will cease to exist like hockey until the whole cricketing setup is overhauled.
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Jul 15, 2015 11:50pm
Good there ODI should not be playing in Champions Trophy.Let's not hope change of fortune till Mohammad Amir is back in September 2015.Also likely Wahab Riaz should be back by that time
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Jul 16, 2015 12:05am
Poor captainship
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Jul 16, 2015 12:06am
Good total but poor bowling . Pak needs to think over bowling line up. Lower order batsmen of Srilanka could bat very comfortably against Pak bowling. That was what decided the match. Good luck to Pak team in next ODIs.
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Jul 16, 2015 12:11am
Why the Pakistan team used to drop too many catches of Mohammad Sami balling now they dropping way too many catches of Anwar Ali balling???
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Jul 16, 2015 12:31am
@Mullah Deewana And the IPL fixers really deserve to be playing CT. Had umpires not favored india, BD would have beaten india in the world cup. Please do something about the illegal betting capital of the world. OK? Thank you
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Jul 16, 2015 12:38am
I dont know what some people are complaining about. You will lose some matches against quality opposition like SL. Azhar Ali looks like a promising captain and a player. He appears to be pretty professional and mature, unlike some other Pakistani crowd favorites.....comment from an indian.
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Jul 16, 2015 12:40am
This is the problem of Pak supporters. They run by emotion not reason. Srilanka batted excellently ,lets at first accept this .. Pak batted really well and it is unfortunate that we lost the match.
Azhar Ali played so well and Malik and Rezwan too. It was simply bad luck.
Soon we will bounce back.. Just look at the Bangladeshi supporters when their team was losing matches continuously , they lost 47 matches at stretch, they therefore kept on supporting and now see their position..
Keep trust on your coach and captain .. They really work hard to win.. Good luck Pakistan..
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Jul 16, 2015 12:55am
Once again the limitations of Pakistani bowling are exposed. 287 is a reasonable
score under the given conditions but our
bowlers let down us. In Sri Lanka's innings,
the 6th, 7th, and 8th wicket partnerships
dealt serious blows to Pskistan's chances of
win.
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Jul 16, 2015 12:59am
At the same time when youngsters like Rizwan are given a chance they prove themselves even lower the order. We need Mukhtar.
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Jul 16, 2015 01:08am
Does Pak cricket look like the new MINNOWS?
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Jul 16, 2015 01:13am
WHats wrong with our supporters? Instead of praising winning team, we are trying out best to humiliate our own team who defeated same Sri Lankan team few days ago. Kusal won that for Sri Lanka but such innings aren't a daily event. Pakistan did exceptionally well in middle overs to pull things back but required run rate was never an issue for Lankan batters and they had the advantage of so many lower order allrounders. Pakistan should have won after scoring 287 but its Sri Lanka who deserve all the praise. Azhar played well while Shahzad, Hafeez and Baber should have kicked in too. I hope Pakistan appoints Azhar captain of test team too once Misbah retires. He is one of the rare sensible, educated and proper cricketer who scores on difficult tracks too.
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Jul 16, 2015 01:31am
@Be-fitting Pants Agree, but 287 should have been defended against any team. We were one short in quality wicket taking bowling. Fourth bowler needs to be replaced with one of the three allrounders Hafeez, Malik or Azhar Ali.
Imran Khan looks very promising and should take Umar Gul's place.
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Jul 16, 2015 01:35am
@Shahin A. Hossain Let's not over expect.Pakistan team played well and once Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir is back,this will be team to watch.They should stick to basic as they are doing good job.They so far looked good in the first 2 ODIs.Keep on playing like this you will win soon.
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Jul 16, 2015 01:38am
Ahmed Shehzad needs to go. He continues to udnerperform and his strike rates continues to stay below 75.
Secondly, we need a specialist bowler in place of three all rounders (Hafeez, Anwar and Shoaib)
wake up PCB! bus kerdo!
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Jul 16, 2015 01:59am
Pakistan need to use 1st 10 overs. Drop Shahzad get that T20 opener who did so well against Zimbabwe and u see the positive set of mind from start. Simples
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Jul 16, 2015 02:30am
Win and loss is a part of game dunno y Pak supporters are over reacting
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Jul 16, 2015 04:44am
Azhar ali incompetence Captaincy, but Pak team strike rate was slow. He is another gifted by Waqar as Jr. Misbah, wrong planning, guiding, waqar and Azhar is enough spoils cricket, when Misbah left he did not have legacy. He & Waqar both ruined the careers of Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Akhtar, this trika Haroon/waqar/Azhar ali are behind Sarfarz to damaged him. Bcs Sarfarz is high strike rate batsman, Azhar ali is not tolerating Sarfarz. GOD HELP HIM. This match we should win, Azhar used wrong bowler at wrong time, He will be another similar to Hokey Captain Imran.
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Jul 16, 2015 05:18am
It is not the bowlibg or batting which lets Pakistan down. It is the Mind set which has done the damage. We need to get out of Misbah's school of thought and play modern limited overs crickrt which requires attack8ng batting from first ball of the first over. This kind of attacking mindset gives mental strength to the players which results in wins.
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Jul 16, 2015 06:01am
Pakistan will never be a force until they change their strategy of playing slow 15 overs at the top. You can't have Shaehzad and Azhar both as they equally slow it down to strike rates of 65-70. Mukhtar must open and Pakistan must aim 300+ to have a chance in ODIs. Secondly, I was astonished to see Kusal hitting the same shot all the way until he got out but our bowlers went on to bowl the same ball for a pull to mid-wicket. We need some thinking bowlers and an equally thinking skipper.
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Jul 16, 2015 06:24am
What ever the results is Pakistan team did fight back. That is what cricket is really about. Good luck for the next game.
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Jul 16, 2015 07:18am
I think our fielding is poor. Look at Shehzad! He can never catch or stop the ball. Only lies down on the ground!
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Jul 16, 2015 07:25am
Pakistan has a very good team and they should invest in it. But the only area of improvement is that no 4,5 and 6 should be capable of playing explosive innings regularly. Right now you don't have anyone. Present lot of no 4,5,and 6 are 1 match wonders. Shahid afridi doesn't fit into the squad as he is more often a failure than success when it comes to batting. Probably Pakistan is missing the services of Abdul Razzaq or similar.
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Jul 16, 2015 07:48am
The Sri Lankan team and cricket board will prefer to have Pakistan in the Champions than the Windies. The cricketing ties between Sri Lanka and Pakistan are strong, sweeter than honey, higher than the Himalayas and deeper than oceans. So the board will be all-merciful, all-helpful to the most needy of this position, we do not need to worry - it will hopefully be a 3-2 defeat in favor of Pakistan.
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Jul 16, 2015 08:27am
we need saeed Ajlam back with his actual action. he has never alternative.
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Jul 16, 2015 08:44am
It was parera who made difference by his blitz.
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Jul 16, 2015 09:32am
@Shahid . Absolutely right. Ahmad Shahzad DOES NOT deserve to be in the team.
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Jul 16, 2015 10:32am
Our fast bowlers are not capable. They are not properly trained so even a low order batsman can hit them boundary easily. We know when Waqar and Wasim easily crack down low order batsmen. Further poor Captaincy noticed here. When left handed Pierrera was hitting to left, why bowler was not instructed or why field placing wasn't accurately. Our team wins with physical power not using scientific cricket technique which only Australia possesses.
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Jul 16, 2015 11:01am
Shezad is the New Akmal,He has to be in every aspect of the Game.
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Jul 16, 2015 12:18pm
Sir
Waqar Yunus in his playing days was an awesome pace bowler during the last ten overs with his reverse swinging and toe crushing yorkers.
However, as a headcoach now Waqar has failed miserable to mould the Pakistani pace attack that is looking lost during the last 10 to 12 overs and are unable to go for the kill.
The PCB should immediately review the performance of Waqar Yunus and try to bring in Wasim Akram as full time head coach. If Wasim is not available then Aquib Javed will be much better than Waqar Yunus
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