June 9, 2012
Scorecard: Sri Lanka 280 for 4 (Dilshan 119*, Jayawardene 53) beat Pakistan 204 (Azhar 96, Perera 6-44) by 76 runs
Tillakaratne Dilshan dropped anchor and batted through the inning
June 9, 2012
Scorecard: Sri Lanka 280 for 4 (Dilshan 119*, Jayawardene 53) beat Pakistan 204 (Azhar 96, Perera 6-44) by 76 runs
Tillakaratne Dilshan dropped anchor and batted through the inning
Tillakaratne Dilshan batted through the innings with a century to take Sri Lanka to 280. Azhar Ali looked set to match Dilshan's feat and nearly launched his maiden ODI ton.
Ultimately, it was Thisara Perera's six-wicket haul, aided by his own brilliant fielding, which helped Sri Lanka level the series after a disappointing showing on Thursday. Perera's efforts were all the more special because four of those wickets included the top order. In the process, he bagged the overall best bowling figures against Pakistan in one-dayers.
A breezy half-century by Azhar Ali kept Pakistan in the hunt in their chase of 281 in Pallekele. At the halfway stage, Pakistan weren't quite at pace with the required rate, but had wickets in hand to mount a tall target.
Azhar did well to shrug off the tag of being a 'Test-match player'. His figures in the limited opportunities he's got in ODIs isn't terrific for a top-order batsman (62.10). Despite that, Pakistan have shown faith in him for his ability to occupy the crease by picking him ahead of the specialist opener Imran Farhat. What transpired was an unexpected reversal of roles, as the more aggressive Mohammad Hafeez ended up being outscored as Azhar picked the gaps with little risk.
Azhar survived an early let-off when an outside edge sailed between the two slips. He followed it up with a crisp punch past point, a sign of things to come. It was classical batsmanship on view as Azhar relied purely on timing to fetch his boundaries. With minimal foot movement, he managed to drive on the up and yet place it in the gaps through the off side. The pace at which he scored would have surprised Sri Lanka. The short of a length deliveries were punched off the back foot, while the fuller ones were driven through the covers.
He was confident enough to walk down the pitch to the seamers to negate the swing. He survived two close run-out calls – one at the bowler's end when Nuwan Kulasekara got a hand to a straight drive that deflected to the stumps when on 25, and the other on 71 when he dived to beat a throw from the outfield. Sri Lanka managed only a couple of wickets, the standout dismissal being a brilliant one-handed return catch by Thisara Perera to get rid of Hafeez.
Courtesy: islandcricket
