Published: Jul 26, 2015, 10:01 PM (IST)
Edited: Jul 27, 2015, 12:24 AM (IST)
Pakistan weren’t able to top an impressive series with a decent performance in the fifth and final One-Day International (ODI) against Sri Lanka at Hambantota. They were comprehensively beaten by a margin of over 165 runs. After Sri Lanka set their visitors a daunting target of 369, things were always going to be difficult for Pakistan. The Sri Lankan bowlers kept it tight right from the start and as a result of the pressure created, wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals. FULL SCORECARD: Sri Lanka vs Pakistan, 5th ODI at Hambantota
The Pakistani openers looked quite steady, but were too slow given the size of the chase at hand. Ahmed Shehzad was the first to fall to the increasing asking rate pressure when he tried to hit out against Senanayake, but got stumped instead. Azhar Ali looked to be shaping up for a bigger contribution in the game but poor running coupled with opportunistic fielding by Angelo Mathews led to his run out for a 42-ball 35. UPDATES: Sri Lanka vs Pakistan, 5th ODI at Hambantota
Mohammad Hafeez, the man in form, seemed to be in his element and scored a run a ball 37, but was out lbw to Angelo Mathews and in process became the all-rounder’s 100th ODI victim. Hafeez himself achieved a milestone in the game, by surpassing the 5000-ODI career runs mark. Sarfraz Ahmed also got a start and looked just a little bit threatening, but lazy running and a direct hit at the stumps from the deep by Suranga Lakmal undid his good work as he got run out for 27 off 24 deliveries. ALSO READ: Tillakaratne Dilshan becomes 4th Sri Lankan to get to 10,000 ODI runs
By this stage, Pakistan were reeling under pressure and no middle order batsman had the grit to fight it out. The wickets kept falling and after Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Rizwan were dismissed by Thisara Perera, the tail was exposed and not much could be expected of them in a situation like this. Pakistan lost their last wicket, with just 203 runs on the board.
Earlier, Sri Lanka hammered away to a dominant first innings total of 368 for four. The total gave them the best chance of winning. The day was all rosy for the Sri Lankan supporters as they were given plenty to cheer about, including veteran Tillakaratne Dilshan reaching the 10,000 ODI run milestone. Kusal Perera, the top scorer with a fine hundred, himself reached the 1000-run mark in ODIs in the process.
The openers, Dilshan and Perera put on a commanding first wicket partnership of 164 runs before Dilshan was run out in a fine effort by Ahmed Shehzad. Even Perera fell victim to bad running later in the innings but not before posting a commanding 109-ball 116. While Lahiru Thirimanne and Dinesh Chandimal didn’t add a whole lot of runs in the middle, Mathews and Milinda Siriwardana made up with some heavy hitting thereafter.
Sri Lanka got past the 300-run mark in the 46th over and went berserk thereafter with Mathews and Siriwardana having the license to thrill. The Pakistani bowlers looked quite ineffective today. In the death overs, the yorker was conspicuous only by it’s absence and the batsmen made merry of sub-par bowling and good batting conditions.
Both Mathews and Siriwardana romped away to their fifties. Mathews ended with 70 off 40 balls, while Siriwardana scored 52 at a strike rate of exactly 200, adding invaluable meat to Sri Lanka’s score. While Perera and Dilshan set the base early in the match with some responsible batting mixed with mild aggression, their disappointment of being run out would have been alleviated by the hitting in the final overs as well as the final result.
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 368 for 4 in 50 overs (Kusal Perera 116, Angelo Mathews 70; Rahat Ali 2 for 74) beat Pakistan 203 in 37.2 overs (Azhar Ali 35, Mohammad Hafeez 37; Sachithra Senanayake 3 for 39) by 165 runs.
Man of the match: Kusal Perera
Man of the series: Mohammad Hafeez
(Rishad D’Souza, a reporter with CricketCountry, gave up hopes of playing Test cricket after a poor gully-cricket career. He now reports on the sport. You can follow @RishadDsouza on Twitter)
