Pakistan v Sri Lanka – 2nd ODI - First Innings Recap
Despite some jitters during the middle phase of their innings, Sri Lanka managed to set a competitive total of 235 runs for Pakistan to chase in the second One Day International of the five-match series, played at the Dubai International
Cricket Stadium on Monday, November 14, 2011.
The toss went in favour of Sri Lanka, and their skipper, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/TM-Dilshan-c2691, stuck with the decision of batting first, as he did in the first match.
The Lankans made a couple of changes in their outfits and drafted Thisara Perera and Jeevan Mendis in place of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DPMD-Jayawardene-c1397 overcame the injury scare and was included in the side as well.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Aizaz-Cheema-c961. Gul was on song and hit the right spots from the word go. The Lankan vanguards were finding it hard to score off
Gul’s bowling; however, the same was not the case with the 32-year-old Cheema.
Dilshan and Tharanga targeted Cheema early in their innings and it paid for the two bashers. Tharanga was a bit fortunate, as the batsman was granted another life by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-Farhat-c64218, who dropped a sitter on the final delivery of the
sixth over.
Both Tharanga and Dilshan continued to bat aggressively and this prompted Pakistani skipper, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 earlier than he had anticipated. The ploy worked for Misbah as Afridi
dislodged Dilshan in his first over.
Dilshan (28) tried to cut Afridi but was cramped for room, as the ball slid through to the stumps.
Wicket-keeper batsman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Abdul-Razzaq-c41623 deceived the batsman by
bowling a slower delivery and Sangakkara end up popping the easiest of return catches to him.
Lady Luck smiled at Tharanga once again, as wicket-keeper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sarfraz-Ahmed-c88818 dropped his catch in the 20th over, off Muhammad Hafeez’s bowling.
However, the Pakistani bowlers restricted the Lankans from scoring runs freely, as only 21 runs were scored between the 20th and 30th over, and also fetched the wicket of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/LD-Chandimal-c1831.
Mahela Jayawardene and Tharanga took the fight back to Pakistani bowlers and put on a valuable partnership of 85 runs for the fourth wicket. Tharanga (77) finally ran out of luck, as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Younis-Khan-c98325 caught him near the midwicket boundary
and brought Afridi his second wicket of the day in the process.
The Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) proved to be helpful for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, as umpires had to retract their verdict and give Angelo Matthews out in the 43rd over. The wicket of Matthews brought some respite for Cheema,
who had taken a beating at the hands of Lankans.
Jayawardene was the next man to be dismissed. The batsman got out after scoring 50 runs. However, his belligerent innings propelled http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 to 235 for the loss of seven wickets.
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