Pakistan 215 for 3 (Sadaqat 96, Farhan 73) beat Sri Lanka 133 for 7 (Theekshana 32*, Imran 3-11) by 82 runs
Sadaqat propels Pakistan into the stratosphere
The openers had laid a decent platform with Pakistan having got to 55 for 1 by the end of the seventh over. But it was Sadaqat who injected the energy that truly set Pakistan on course to their mammoth total. Having gone at less than a run a ball in his first eight balls, Sadaqat unleashed a spectacular lofted square drive off Eshan Malinga to collect his first six, before pumping the same bowler down the ground later in the 10th over.
Sadaqat would go on to clobber six further sixes and five further fours. The big hits tended to come down the ground, while his fours were more square of the wicket. Of the 125 runs Pakistan plundered in the second half of their innings, 79 off 40 came from Sadaqat, who pummeled both pace and spin with equal relish. Off the sixteenth over, bowled by Maheesh Theekshana, Sadaqat thumped three sixes in the arc between long on and midwicket.
Sadaqat, whose previous top score in three T20Is had been 50, could have gone to triple figures off the last ball of the innings, but holed out to deep cover instead, unable to quite find the power to lift a Malinga slower ball over the ropes. He had utterly dominated the middle and late overs, however.
Farhan sets the tone
On another flat Rawalpindi deck, Farhan made the first big charge, although he waited until spin came on to really get into high gear. Theekshana was one of his main victims as well. Farhan’s first six came from a slog sweep off Theekshana in the seventh over, before he launched the same bowler over wide long on and cow corner off successive balls in the ninth over. Getting to his 12th T20I fifty off the 31st ball he faced, Farhan began to aim big blows off the seamers as well. He was caught at deep third off the bowling of Dasun Shanaka, in the 15th over.
Sri Lanka stumble in the powerplay
An excellent Salman Mirza bouncer took the glove of Lahiru Udara in the first over, ending the innings of one of Sri Lanka’s few form batters for a mere five runs. And although Sineth Jayawardena – playing his first international in a full-strength Sri Lanka side – hit three consecutive boundaries in the third over, Sri Lanka were unable to build up any momentum in the powerplay. By the end of the sixth over, they had laboured to 35 for 2.
Imran’s spell lights up the middle overs
A full house in Rawalpindi was treated to some excellent fast bowling by Imran, who finished with the game’s best figures of 3 for 11 from his four overs. Having got Jayawardena to top-edge a desperate pull shot at the end of his second over, Imran had Kusal Mendis caught behind off a slower delivery, before two balls later (a wide in between), he took Sahan Arachchige’s edge with a quick delivery angled across the left-hander. Wicketkeeper Khawaja Nafay made two diving grabs to convert these chances in the eighth over.
All through his unbroken spell, Sri Lanka’s batter struggled to so much as hit Imran off the square, despite the good batting conditions on offer. Imran mixed up his pace, frequently going to slower balls, but his line and length control were also excellent through the spell. When he finished his unbroken spell at the end of the 10th over, Sri Lanka’s required rate had climbed past 15.
Chamindu Wickramasinghe and Theekshana struck some late boundaries, but by the time they came to the crease, Sri Lanka did not have a realistic shot at levelling this series. They lost by 82 runs in the end.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is a senior writer at Cricinfo. @afidelf
