Pakistan v http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758: 5th ODI – Match Preview
After taking a 2-1 lead against Pakistani, Sri Lanka will hope to make such advantage count when they take on the tourists in the final game of the ODI series, played at the R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on June 18, 2012.
A confident Sri Lankan team will go into the field at least with one solid assurance that they cannot lose the series, they are raring to go against the Green Shirts to put the final nail in the coffin before heading into the Test series with an upper hand.
For Pakistan, there is no time left to think over what went wrong during the four overs where they collapsed miserably, losing 7 wickets for 13 runs. They will go in today’s match with two biggest threats facing them; first, a Mahela Jayawardene-led Sri
Lanka, riding on a renewed self belief and second their own batting malfunction.
Batting has proved to be the Achilles heel and the ugly collapse of the senior batsman can offer no explanation. Pakistan played an extra batsman for some depth but the strategy failed again, the blame cannot be placed on Whatmore and Misbah for the consistent
failure of their top batsmen, the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482, who keep on tumbling like a house of cards.
The hosts can smell a win here; Premadasa has never been a happy hunting ground when it comes to their encounters with the visitors but at least this time around they have their fingers on the pulse and exactly know how to wrap-up the series on a high note.
They have reasons to believe, unlike their spin, their pace attack has responded well. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SL-Malinga-c2540 and Thisara Perera proved too hot to handle for the Pakistani batsmen.
Already the trio is sharing a haul of 21 wickets in the series. Their stats for the series speaks for themselves, Kulasekara took 5 wickets at an average of 22.66, Malinga 6 wickets at 19 and the pick of the series, Perera has bagged 10 scalps at a remarkable
11.70. It is in a stark contrast to Pakistan’s opening duo of Umar Gul and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sohail-Tanvir-c90665, with 4 wickets 33.25 and 3 wickets at 41.25 respectively.
The batting for Sri Lanka has somewhat performed with the seniors responding according to the situation and in every match one senior has played a big knock whether it was Tilkaratne Dilshan’s 119 during the second ODI at Pallekele, Kumar Sangakkara’s masterful
97 in the fourth ODI at Premadasa or captain Mahela Jayewardene’s useful knocks of 53 and 40.
But for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Azhar-Ali-c46890, a makeshift opener whose style of batting does not bode well with the demands of 50-over format. However he has stood
tall with composed knocks of 96 and 81, all in a lost cause.
While coming to the fray, the tour has been nothing less than a disappointment for the vice-captain Mohammad Hafeez, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Younis-Khan-c98325 and Afridi, and their woeful contributions with the bat. Captain Misbah ul Haq is the second best batsman with an average of
38.
After losing the momentum, Pakistan will fight today to stay in the remaining series that includes the Test matches, a defeat here might just seal the Test series for Pakistan as well which is due to start from 22 June. The visitors might come up out with
the same team however, there is a possibility of including http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Umar-Gul-c94604.
Sri Lanka is likely to retain the winning combination from the last match and would be on an all-out offence. Their batting has clicked so far except for the first rain-affected match and their bowling attack is well in the groove to rattle a struggling
opposition.
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