Openers, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, on November 18, 2011.
The Men In Green skipper won his first toss of the limited over series and was in no doubt in electing to have a bat first on a track which has been surprisingly assistive to both bowling attacks.
The hosts showed stability in their opening berth after Hafeez and Farhat posted their first 50-stand of the series. However, the bowlers have applied considerable pressure with the pick being Thisara Perera.
Hafeez has been targeted by the Lankan bowlers and has found hard to rotate the strike, with an uncharacteristically slow scoring rate. His partner however, faced no such problem and fluently attacked the opponents’ bowling attack, going at almost run a ball.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lions-c808 managed to control the flamboyant nature of Hafeez, who played and missed quite a lot of delivery.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Seekkuge-Prasanna-c89140 into the attack and the 26-year-old immediately was in the thick of action.
In an eventful first over, he caught Hafeez lbw after the batter attempted a sweep. With umpire fending off his appeal, Dilshan referred the decision and despite the ball hitting the top of off-stump, the on field called stood.
The team fifty was reached in the 13th over before Hafeez thumped Prasanna to the mid-wicket region to take the score to 57 at the end of 14.
Earlier, the Men In Green made one change to the team, which saw the return of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Aizaz-Cheema-c961. The Lankans stuck to the same XI that emerged victorious from the previous match.
The five match series is tied one a piece so the third ODI holds significance in terms of physiological advantage for the remainder of the series.
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