Pakistan v Sri Lanka 2nd ODI, 2017: Who Said What

It was a do or die encounter for Sri Lanka, having already lost the opening game of the series, they had to win this to keep the series alive and the much talked about Lahore T20I exciting. Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed on winning the toss decided to bowl first, he trusted his batters to chase down any total the Lankans were capable to post against his bowling attack. As it turned out the challenge was mediocre but the game went down to the wire but once again the hosts were too good and stole the honours.

If caution was a highly appreciated attribute in the game, the Sri Lankan batters displayed it in abundance today. Danushka Gunathilaka and Dilshan Munaweera got the team off to a decent but slow start and after Dilshan walked back, Sadeera Samarawickrama chose to weight wickets over the scoring rate and held their ends tight though runs weren’t easy flowing. The opener eventually got to his half century in 46 balls while his partner hung in there for his 31-ball 32.

But once the partnership was broken and Gunathilaka was dismissed for 51 the Pakistani bowlers capitalized on the opening and Sri Lanka crumbled from 106/2 to 119/9 in no time. They failed to score runs in the death and thus concluded the innings on 124/9. A highlight of the innings also was Faheem Ashraf’s hat-trick that he picked in the penultimate over of the innings.

Though Pakistan’s isn’t a famed batting line-up they do back themselves to chase down such a total on more occasions than not. Ahmed Shehzad and Fakhar Zaman initiated a stable reply from Pakistan but once Zaman and Babar Azam were dismissed in a space of a delivery the hosts could feel the pressure. The scoring rate was always under control but they almost hit the panic button like the Lankans in the far end of the chase to find themselves in an adverse situation.

But young Shadab Khan hit a meaty six in the last over and picked a double on the last ball to win the game for his team in the last breath.

Victorious skipper Sarfraz stated:

Our bowlers did really well to pull Sri Lanka down form their position of strength while they were batting. The fielding too was really really good. And then Shadab at the end, hitting that six, that was a million-dollar shot.

In that crunch situation, on this difficult pitch, that shot was very difficult. Our youngsters are putting up big performances. We back them, our coaching staff backs them and they are coming good even in high pressure situations. We have a New Zealand tour, and we can’t be batting like this then. We are trying to improve and hopefully we do before going away. Good that we’ve won the series now, but we are looking forward to the game in Lahore. Hopefully the ground is full and the people support Sri Lanka as well.

Man of the Match, Shadab Khan said:

I was just thinking about trying to win the match. I went for the six in the last over, and Allah helped it carry over the fence. In T20s, you have to have variations with the ball. So that’s what I’ve been working on.

Thisara Perera said:

If we look back at this match, we can take a lot of positives. My team-mates are giving 100%. Just at the last minute we missed a catch. But we did well. On this wicket, it was really hard to put up a big score. One-twenty four is a hard score to defend but our bowlers did a really really good job to take it that far.

My team-mates are giving me 100% effort and so I give my 100% to the team as well. As a captain, I’m really proud of them and our win is not too far away. It’s coming soon. Set batsman need to contribute, if we take the first two batters, our plan is that they have to play till the 15th over. Unfortunately they couldn’t do it. Went to Lahore for the World XI game. It’s an amazing place.