Sri Lanka win by 5 wickets
Sri Lanka win by 5 wickets
Lankan batsmen picked up their victory defeating Pakistan by five wickets in the final match of Asia Cup 2014 in Mirpur today.
Sri Lankan got the easy victory losing just five wickets in their chase of 260.
Lahiru Thirimanne's brilliant century off 106 balls and Mahela Jayawardene's 75 run-innings off 93 balls spearheaded Sri Lanka towards a win despite Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal's consecutive dismissal of their top two batsmen.
Ajmal made early inroads dismissing Sangakkara before he could score any run in the wake of MDKJ Perera's departure.
Thirimanne left crease with his 101 runs off 109 balls while Mahela Jayawardene went back to the pavilion scoring 75 runs off 93 balls.
Jayawardene was dismissed as he gave a catch to Sharjeel Khan took in a delivery of Mohammad after making a 156-run partnership with Thirimanne.
Pakistan middle-order batsman Fawad Alam helped to score the runs with his maiden century despite the strike of Sri Lankan ace speed demon Lasith Malinga. He scored 114 runs off 134 balls remaining unbeaten.
Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq's 65 runs off 98 balls and Umar Akmal's 59 runs off 42 balls powered Pakistan, giving a fighting score against Lankan.
Malinga solely took all five wickets. He dismissed first-down batsman Mohammad Hafiz after picking up both openers Ahmed Shehzad and Sharjeel Khan.
Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq went back to the pavilion scoring 65 runs off 98 balls after giving a catch to MDKJ Perera in a delivery of Malinga.
Malinga finally dismissed Umar AKmal at 59 runs off 42.
Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. The match will begin from local time 2:00pm (8:00am GMT) at Sher-e Bangla Stadium.
State-run Bangladesh Television and private channel, Channel 9, broadcasted the match live.
Lankans are leading the tourney with 17 points bagging all four matches in their favour while Pakistan lost only one match of their four with 13 points – the inaugural one – against today’s opponents.
PAKISTAN XI
Sharjeel Khan, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Umar Akmal (wk), Fawad Alam, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Talha, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal and Junaid Khan
SRI LANKA XI
MDKJ Perera, HDRL Thirimanne, KC Sangakkara (wk), DPMD Jayawardene, SMA Priyanjan, AD Mathews (c), PC de Silva, NLTC Perera, SMSM Senanayake, RAS Lakmal and SL Malinga