Geoff Marsh praises Umar Akmal’s batting – Cricket New Update
Sri Lanka’s coach http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Umar-Akmal-c94595 for his ability to win matches on his own.
Akmal had batted superbly, top scoring with 91 runs, in the second One Day International (ODI) of the ongoing five match series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033 (UAE).
However, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 went onto lose the match by 25 runs, as the team was unable to keep wickets in tact towards the end of the innings.
At one stage, the Men in Green looked in control of the match courtesy a 62-run partnership between Akmal and wicketkeeper batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sarfraz-Ahmed-c88818. The pair had guided the team out of trouble, as the first five wickets fell for 102 runs.
However, with a solid half-century stand, the home team was almost certain of winning the match and they also had the required run-rate under check.
At that stage of the innings, Pakistan only required to bat out the entire overs and could have easily taken a lead of 2-0 in the series.
Akmal wanted to finish things in a hurry though, as he smashed three consecutive boundaries off http://www.senore.com/Cricket/CRD-Fernando-c1292 in the 38th over.
The flamboyant batsman could have easily defended the last ball of the over, but decided to smash another boundary.
However, he only managed to hit the ball straight to the hands of the mid-on fielder http://www.senore.com/Cricket/LD-Chandimal-c1831, who took the catch easily.
Adding insult to injury, keeper batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-Farhat-c64218 had wasted it earlier in the innings.
Despite Akmal not being able to finish the match, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Simon-James-Marshall-c90362 was impressed by the youngster and said, “I think that is the way he plays. He is one player who can win you a game all by himself. He is a very good and exciting player. He is a dangerous one-day player.”
The Sri Lankan coach will be expecting his team to continue the winning momentum from here onwards and claim the ODI series after being defeated in the longest format of the game.
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