Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Bowlers did the job


Sri Lanka finally won the game in which fortunes swing at a wild pace. They sealed their first home series win against Pakistan with a magnificent performance in the second test match. Pakistan suffered another batting collapse because of which they lost nine wickets for 35 to go from a commanding 285 for 1 to 320 all out. Sri Lanka, who was then left with a victory target of just 171, cruised to a big win in just 32 overs to finish the game in just three days!

Earlier, Fawad Alam and Younis Khan shared a 200-run second-wicket partnership in the morning. Pakistan was looking good & was heading for a big score; but Sri Lanka had other plans.

Surprisingly, Rangana Herath took the new ball, and equally surprisingly, he struck immediately, dismissing Mohammad Yousuf with his 2nd ball. The collapse began there, as seven more wickets fell in the next 92 balls.

Nuwan Kulasekara looked brilliant with the new ball in overcast conditions. He took four wickets, all lbw. Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal, Abdur Rauf and Saeed Ajmal all got it horribly wrong, though the dismissal of Misbah-ul-Haq was debatable.

Rangana Herath, just like the first test match, took the wickets of Yousuf, Shoaib Malik and Umar Gul, while turn & bounce ended Fawad Alam’s outstanding innings of 168, the second-highest by a Pakistan debutant.


The Sri Lankan opening partnership added 60 runs in a mere ten overs, and even when that pair was separated, with Paranavitana playing a casual sweep shot, Pakistan were never in the game as Sangakkara carried on from where he had left off in the 1st innings. Still, when he got out, with Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera around, though, that hardly mattered.

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