Islanders take unassailable lead in 3-match T20 rubber: Young SL outplay Pakistan yet again

LAHORE: Sri Lanka young guns Monday broke Pakistan’s T20 hegemony winning the second match of the three-T20 games by 35 runs and the series 2-0 here at the Gaddafi Stadium.

The third match of the series will be played at the same venue on October 9, Wednesday and Pakistan will be looking for solace.It was Pakistan’s first ever home T20 series defeat at the hands of a team which was in pursuit of recognition after their top players refused from touring on security grounds. The side dumped as depleted humbled Pakistan in the first match by 64 runs and later took an unassailable 2-0 lead by containing the world number one T20 side at 147 with six balls to spare. Sri Lanka winning the toss, made full use of power play reaching 182 for six despite a mini collapse by the close of their innings. Pakistan in their chase, like the previous match, had a jittery start losing back to back wickets of their openers Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam in the third and fourth overs respectively.

The following batters Ahmed Shahzad and Captain Sarfraz Ahmed were looked at for a reprieve. But with some good hits from Sarfraz, Pakistan caved in to the pressure applied by the Sri Lankans. The pressure developed by Nuwan Pradeep and Kasun Rajitha gave Sri Lanka an ideal start with the wickets of Pakistan openers. Later, Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva struck three times in the eighth over claiming the wickets of Ahmed (13), Umar Akmal (another and 10th duck) and Sarfraz (26, 16b 3X4 1X6) pushing Pakistan to the wall.

Pakistan’s struggle was eased a bit by Imad Wasim and Asif Ali with beautifully timed boundaries. The two also punctuated 6th wicket 50 in 32 balls and later developed into 75 runs partnership. Udana brought smiles on his captain’s face with a LBW of Imad at 47 off 29 balls that came with the help of eight rolling shots across the ropes.

Pakistan 127 for six was all out at 147 within a span of 16 balls. Pradeep, de Silva Udana had four, three and two wickets respectively while Rajitha had one wicket.

The visiting side maintained above 8 average right from the start and increased it by the fag end of their innings. Sri Lanka 80 for two in 10 overs, were 99 for 2 after Shadab bowled the 11th over conceding 19 runs. During that point in time Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Shehan Jayasuriya not only reached a 50 runs partnership for the third wicket but the former too completed his half century in 31 balls. Their partnership 50 came in 36 balls while Rajapaksa in his 7th T20 half century hit two fours and four mighty sixes. Later by the 12th over, Sri Lanka managed to reach 100 runs. However, Asif Ali broke their partnership of 94 runs with a direct hit run out of Jayasuria at 34 in the 16th over when their team’s score was 135.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 182/6 in 20 overs (Bhanuka Rajapaksa 77, Shehan Jayasuriya 34; Imad Wasim 1-27) beat Pakistan 147 in 19 overs (Imad Wasim 47; Nuwan Pradeep 4-25, Wanindu Hasaranga 3-38) by 35 runs.