The left-arm fast bowling duo of Junaid Khan and Mohammad Amir staged a late revival with the ball to restrict Sri Lanka to functional total of 236 in the final league fixture of the Group B at the Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. Both Amir and Junaid triggered a Lankan collapse after the midway stage of the first innings to deny the batting side any chance of posting a hi=uge total.
Sri Lanka was at a comfortable 161/4 by the end of the 31st over but lost four wickets in four successive overs to get reduced to 167/7. The total could have been much worse but Asela Gunartane (27 from 44 balls) and Suranga Lakmal (26 from 34 balls) lead an appreciable revival with the help of 46 runs stand for the 8th wicket.
After electing to bowl first, the new ball pair of Amir and Junaid initially struggled to take advantage of the pressure they built early on. Danushka Gunathilaka, who fell off Amir’s bowling in the 6th over of the innings, was the only early success for Pakistan.
The batting performance from the Lankans was highly unimpressive considering the seriousness of the game. Most of the names, on whom the expectations were pinned upon, flunked and ended up being responsible for today’s batting failure.
The early damage could not bother Sri Lanka much as Kusal Mendis(27 from 29 balls) and Niroshan Dickwella (73 from 86 balls) combined together to take the innings forward. Their 56 runs stand for the 2nd wicket was a huge respite. But, the Pakistan bowlers reaped the rewards for consistency eventually.
It was obvious for skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed to turn to Hassan Ali and Fahim Ashraf, the other two seamers in the side after the end of the new ball spell from Junaid and Amir. The duo was brought in to bowl in tandem after a brief spell from left-arm spinner Imad Wasim.
They brought instant results. In the 15th over, Hassan Ali broke through with the wicket of the dangerous Mendis of the 5th delivery in the over. It was just the second over of his new spell. A ball later, Fahim marked his run – up to start the new over and produced a stunner to remove the struggling Dinesh Chandimal off the first delivery. He eventually ended with a wicket maiden. This back to back dismissals hampered the run flow significantly.
Sri Lanka, fortunately, recovered from the double blow as Dickwella and skipper Angelo Mathews (39 from 54 balls) began re-building the innings with a cautious approach. They succeeded largely and nearly rendered the Pakistan bowling attack ineffective. Batting for 16.1 overs, the pair added 78 runs for the 4th wicket. It was carefully built stand based on single and doubles.
However, just when Sri Lanka seemed to be building a platform for a huge total, the Junaid – Amir pair intervened and halted the smooth free flow of runs. Both took two wickets each. The brief downfall started with Mathews who was cleaned up in the 32nd over by Amir. The following three overs saw three more wickets fall. Junaid got rid of Dhanajaya de Silva in the over following Mathews’ wicket. Amir then added another wicket to his tally, taking out the well set Dickwella in the next over before Junaid got better of Thisara Perera.
Sri Lanka survived a scare, fortunately, all thanks to the fight shown by Gunaratne and Lakmal. The duo’s effort ensured the innings was stretched and valuable runs were added to the scoreboard.