Pakistan eye clean sweep against struggling SL

SHARJAH: Mickey Arthur, the Pakistan coach, made no secret of his intention of inflicting a clean sweep on Sri Lanka when the teams meet in the fifth and final One-day International here on Monday (today).

Since their ICC Champions Trophy 2017 triumph in June, Pakistan have won eight straight games and have been unstoppable in ODIs, having overcome the disappointment of losing the preceding Test series to the same opponent 2-0 to open up a 4-0 lead in this series.

The coach believed his team had shown the hunger to keep winning.“I will be disappointed if we didn’t make it 5-0,” he said. “The guys are hungry and they definitely want to do that. The key for us is to maintain our hunger and ruthlessness, so we need to keep that momentum and put this series to bed.”

Pakistan have previously achieved five clean sweeps, all in series involving five games. They blanked Zimbabwe in 2002-03, Bangladesh in 2003, New Zealand in 2003-04, and Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in the 2008 season.

They will look to try out more players, with Haris Sohail the only one from the squad who has not featured in this series. But Arthur revealed that a spate of injuries was currently haunting the team.

“It’s a pity that we have picked up a couple of injuries,” he remarked. “I thought Fahim Ashraf bowled great lengths. I would have loved to see him play but he did a calf muscle, out of this match on Monday.”

“Rumman Raees is out of the last match as well as the Twenty20 series,’ added Arthur of the left-arm quick, who has injured his left elbow. “Haris didn’t pass a fitness test in Abu Dhabi after he was pretty close to playing. Babar Azam has pulled a groin and we need to take all that into consideration.”

While Pakistan are enjoying an eight-match winning streak, Sri Lanka will look to avoid an 11th straight loss — three short of their worst-ever run of 14 defeats in 1987.

Nic Pothas, the Sri Lanka coach, urged the batsmen to start delivering.“It is pretty obvious. It is not rocket science,” he said, not for the first time during this series. “We just want the batters to be a little more positive about the way they go about things. We also understand we need to be in the right frame of mind to be there.

“So our job is to try and give the players the freedom to be able to play their way. It is going to be a very good wicket again and it is not the biggest boundary in the world. We are always looking to just improve.”

So sub-par has been their batting that Sri Lanka have not reached the 250-mark even once in their last 11 games.

Pothas believed a positive frame of mind was the need of the hour.“A batter always plays better when he is positive. His decision-making is better, his feet movement will be better and there will be an intent to score if you stay in a positive mind.”

Today’s match

Pakistan vs Sri Lanka 03:00 pm (PST)