Asian Games 2010: Pakistani beat Sri Lanka in T20 cricket tournament to capture Bronze medal
Pakistan redeemed themselves with a bronze medal, as they won the third place play-off in the Asian Games Men’s Twenty20 Tournament, after they slumped to a shock defeat against Afghanistan in the semis. The men in green beat Sri Lanka by six wickets with
12 balls to spare.
Pakistan won the toss at the Guanggong International Cricket Stadium in Guangzhou, and decided to field first. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 started brightly with openers Jeevantha Kulatunga and Nuwan Zoysa. Kulatunga was his side’s top scorer, as he smashed four boundaries
and a six, in scoring 31 runs off 29 balls. Zoysa also entertained the small crowd with a six and two boundaries, as he scored a run a ball 24. But after Kulatunga was caught by Sheharyar Ghani off the bowling of Raza Hasan with the score on 53, the wickets
kept on tumbling at regular intervals.
Zoysa soon followed Kulatunga, as he was caught rather cheaply by Akbar-ur-Rehman off a short delivery from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Usman-Qadir-c94698. Dilshan Munaweera gave the middle order some hope and steered the team to a stable position. However, none of his team-mates were able
to give him any support, and Sri Lanka was bowled out for 135-runs in 19.5 overs.
Pakistan’s pace attack performed tremendously well, especially http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Irshad-c76990 took one wicket each.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sharjeel-Khan-c89775 was the first wicket to fall, when Pakistan had just 7 runs on the board.
However, Khan’s counterpart http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khalid-Latif-c71261 remained unbeaten on 53 runs, as he smashed four sixes and
two boundaries. He was ably supported by middle-order batsman Bilawal Bhatti, who also finished the game unbeaten on 25 runs off 14 balls. Pakistan reached their target in 18 overs for the loss of four wickets.
The Sri Lankans had a disappointing stint at the Asian Games, and their bid for the bronze medal failed due to some indifferent bowling. However http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Jehan-Mubarak-c66822 each snatched one wicket.
Surprise finalists http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 later today in the gold medal clash.
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