Pakistan v Sri Lanka – 1st One Day International – Match Recap
Sri Lanka 131 v Pakistan 132 - Pakistan won by 8 wickets (with 169 balls remaining)
Pakistan beat Sri Lanka in the first One Day International (ODI) by eight wickets on Friday, November 11, 2011 at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Pakistan saw the return of their ace all-rounders http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SL-Malinga-c2540.
The stage was set was a superb 50-over clash as Pakistan need to grab wins in international cricket to put the darkness of the spot-fixing fiasco behind them, while Sri Lanka need to shun their critics under the new leadership of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/TM-Dilshan-c2691.
After winning the toss, Sri Lanka chose to bat first, hoping to amass a massive total against Pakistan, however, the adrenaline rush flowing in the raring Pakistan unit who came in the match after winning the three-Test series against the Lankans took charge
early on as they left the Sri Lankan batsmen without any room to dominate the sequence of events during the game.
Pakistan grabbed their first wicket on the penultimate delivery of the second over when skipper Dilshan was clean-bowled by Pakistan pacer http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Aizaz-Cheema-c961 after scoring only four runs. At this time, the Lankans had managed to post only 12 runs on the board.
Next to go was veteran http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Razzaq-c84421. By this time, the Lankans had only managed to post 36 runs.
If things weren’t already bad enough, Sri Lanka suffered another loss when opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/WU-Tharanga-c2802 who was looking well-set, lost his wicket in the 18th over when he was caught by Cheema at mid-on off the bowling of spinner Mohammad Hafeez after
scoring 25 runs.
With three wickets down for 66 runs, things were certainly not going the way the Lankans had hoped for. On the other hand, Pakistan were right where they wanted to be as they were conveniently dominating their opposition.
For Sri Lanka http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DPMD-Jayawardene-c1397 were the only two batsmen who showed some class and composure as they batted against a belligerent Pakistan bowling line-up which was gradually disintegrating the Lankans.
After the main strikers it was time for Pakistan’s spinning brigade to take over and Afridi, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Hafeez-c76898 wrecked havoc on the Sri Lankans.
Chandimal found his way back to the pavilion after scoring 28 runs off 31 deliveries before Shahid Afridi trapped him in front of stumps.
Later, in the in the dying moments of the Lankan innings Jayawardene’s wicket was picked up by Ajmal as the batsmen walked off the field after scoring 24 runs on 57 deliveries.
In the end, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 could muster only 131 runs on the board against an extremely hostile bowling.
From Pakistan, Afridi grabbed three, while Ajmal and Hafeez shared two wickets each.
Coming out to bat, Pakistan did not have a stupendous total at hand and needed to bat sensibly to grab their first win the limited overs series.
It was Hafeez and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-Farhat-c64218 who came out for Pakistan as the two openers aimed to score freely against the Lankans.
However, Hafeez failed to give a big performance as he was dismissed on the penultimate delivery of the second over after scoring only five runs. His wicket was taken by right-arm pacer http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ranasinghe-Arachchige-Suranga-Lakmal-c83928.
Later, however, Farhat and middle-order batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Younis-Khan-c98325 crafted a handy partnership as the duo subdued the Lankans.
Farhat was given leg-before-wicket after amassing 50 runs while http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 secure a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Afridi was named as the Player of the Match was his impressive bowling in the match.
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