May 19, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 02, 1428

ABU DHABI, May 18: An opportune half-century from Farveez Maharoof repelled the earlier inroads made by Pakistan as Sri Lanka posted a respectable 235-9 in the first One-day International of the three-match series at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Friday.

Earlier, a three-wicket Umar Gul had led the way for Pakistan before their recent failure to eliminate opposition’s lower order batting came back to haunt them.

Late in the innings Maharoof’s unbeaten 54-ball 69 lifted the World Cup runners-up to 235-9, including a 14-run last over from Umar.

Pakistan, with Shoaib Malik in his first game as captain, restricted Sri Lanka to 103-5 off 26 overs in the day-night encounter.

Asif, after a long break from the game, bowled to a usual nagging line and length on a track that offered little help to bowlers, trapping veteran Sanath Jayasuriya right in front of the stumps while giving away 26 runs off ten very tight overs.

Jayasuriya was followed by Upul Tharanga who was run out for 17 as a result of some fine fielding by Salman Butt and some disastrous decision-making from the batsman, who saw a second run where none was there.

CK Kapugedera was then clean bowled by Umar for 28 and the same bowler sent captain Mahela Jayawardene (18 off 27 balls) back to the pavilion, caught by wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal on a rising out-swinger, and Sri Lanka descended to 72-4 in the 20th over.

And when Dilshan (14) was ousted, caught Umar off Abdul Razzaq, Sri Lanka slumped to 103-5 in the 26th over, looking too feeble, after electing to bat first in the afternoon.

After Dilshan’s departure Sri Lanka lost further wickets at regular intervals but the scoreboard kept on moving too, with 58 precious runs coming for the eighth and ninth wickets the Islanders lost by the end of the innings.

Chamara Silva (47) and Prasanna Jayawardene (20) added a valuable 38 runs for the sixth wicket before both were run out.

At 177-7 in the 42nd over, Maharoof entered the field with some threatening intentions which were obvious later through his hitting. He played a gem of knock at a stage when the Sri Lankans were looking pretty fragile even to reach the 200 mark.

The tall all-rounder belted 69 with the help of nine cracking fours and a six.

For Pakistan, though Umar claimed three wickets but gave away 61 runs. Sami and Razzaq bagged one each for 49 and 52 runs respectively off their ten-over quotas while Afridi (0-43) remained wicketless but kept the Sri Lankans under check in his 10 overs.

Scoreboard

SRI LANKA

W.U. Tharanga run out 17

S.T. Jayasuriya lbw b Asif 1

C.K. Kapugedera b Gul 28

D.P.M.D. Jayawardene c Kamran b Gul 18

L.P.C. Silva run out 47

T.M. Dilshan c Umar Gul b Razzaq 14

H.A.P.W. Jayawardene run out 20

M.F. Maharoof not out 69

C.M. Bandara b Gul 6

S.L. Malinga b Sami 3

M.K.D.I Amerasinghe not out 1

EXTRAS: (B-1, LB-3, W-3, NB-4) 11

TOTAL: (For 9 wkts, 50 overs) 235

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-4, 2-34, 3-61, 4-72, 5-103, 6-141, 7-177, 8-203, 9-215

BOWLING: Asif 10-1-26- 1 (W-1); Sami 10-0-49-1 (W-1), Gul 10-0- 61-3 (NB-1, W-1) Razzaq 10-0-52-1 (NB-3) Afridi 10-0-43- 0.—Agencies