http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 in World Cup match
Triumphant Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi has said that his side will come harder after every game in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2011, after Pakistan thrashed favourites Sri Lanka in the 10th match of the tournament. The cricket gala is being co-hosted by
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 this year.
Pakistan, who many had written-off for the mega event, are on a road to redemption having won their second game of the tournament. The latest victory came as they defeated Sri Lanka in a cliff hanger by 11 runs.
Afridi said that a victory against favourites Sri Lanka in Colombo has sent a clear message to the rest of the world regarding the intent of his team in the World Cup.
Speaking to newsmen after the match he said, “I think it’s a great message for other teams that we will come harder and harder game by game. That was a big game and the boys all knew how big that game was.”
The flamboyant hitter praised middle-order batsmen Younus Khan and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 for their impressive knocks that helped Pakistan score a formidable total of 277 runs in their allotted 50-overs. The score was a record high on the venue. Afridi described
the innings of his two veteran batsmen as “very mature cricket”.
He appreciated the pitch and said the wicket had been good for both batsmen and bowlers to play on. However, He regretted not scoring 300 plus runs on a track which was a meant to favour batsmen.
Where Pakistan were impressive with the ball and bat they were equally sloppy in the field, but Afridi insisted that his young side would improve in the fielding department as the tournament progressed. He said that after taking early wickets his young guns
had relaxed a bit, which had been the reason for the distasteful fielding. Pakistan missed a few stumpings and catches on their way to victory.
Afridi took four wickets in the crucial fixture, which completed his tally of 300 wickets in international cricket.
Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara praised the Afridi eleven for their outstanding performance and acknowledged the fact that his side had made the run-chase difficult by losing too many wickets at the early stages of the game. “I think we made it a bit
difficult for ourselves by losing wickets but we got a good start. We needed a couple of blokes to just kick on from there and keep batting for a longer time. Unfortunately Pakistan played very well,” he said.
Sangakkara appreciated his bowlers for restricting Pakistan to a total of less than 300 which at a time in the match seemed impossible when Misbah and Younus were on the wicket. Pakistan play their next match against minnows http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Canada-c748 on March3 while Sri Lanka
will play against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kenya-c752 on the March 1.
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