May 24, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 07, 1428

ABU DHABI, May 23: World Cup finalists Sri Lanka gave their Australian coach Tom Moody an ideal goodbye here on Tuesday as they beat Pakistan by 115 runs in their third and final One day International (also partially reported in Wednesday’s edition).

Sri Lanka — whom Moody has been coach of since 2005 — made 296-9 off 50 overs while Pakistan could only muster 181 all out off 42.5 overs.

Pakistan — who crashed out of the World Cup in the first stage and whose coach Bob Woolmer died mysteriously shortly after they were sensationally beaten by minnows Ireland — still won the series 2-1.

Sri Lanka's innings was based round a 124 run partnership between skipper Mahela Jayawardene — who made 83 —and Chamara Silva (64).

The Pakistanis, however, never got any momentum going in their innings with just Shoaib producing any resistance of note as he stroked a superb unbeaten captain's innings of 79.

However, he was always facing an uphill battle once the Pakistanis were reduced to 70-6, not helping their cause with two of those being run outs.

Chasing a stiff 297 to claim a 3-0 series win over World Cup finalists Sri Lanka, Pakistan were in trouble right from the start as Salman Butt, opening with the recalled Mohammad Hafeez, was cleaned up by Farveez Maharoof off an inside edge.

Yasir Hameed, growing in stature of late, joined Hafeez in a display of aggression and swing-and-miss. While Hafeez danced down the track at will, missing more often than connecting, Yasir chose to time the ball sweetly from his crease.

The sojourn was soon over as Hafeez went for a run that was never there as the ever-alert Tillekeratne Dilshan picked up, slipped, managed to regain balance and hit down the stumps. Hafeez was gone for 34 and in came an agonisingly out-of-form maestro Mohammad Yousuf. While Yousuf showed glimpses of his class, Yasir tried going for a pull too many and top-edged Dilhara Fernando after a brisk 22.

Malik applied a cautious approach to his innings but things soon turned for the worse as first Yousuf was leg before to Fernando for a scrappy five and was followed back into the pavilion by debutant Fawad Alam who played his first ball, a low full toss, back to the bowler thus capping off a lacklustre debut.

Kamran Akmal, who had showed signs of maturity with the bat during the earlier games, was run out while backing up too far and Pakistan had just lose five wickets for only nine runs with credit going to the Sri Lankan bowlers and fielders.

From that point onwards, pride was all that mattered as Malik shared a fifty partnership with Rao Iftikhar but never threatened the ever-increasing run-rate as Pakistan's decision of making five changes backfired immensely.

Scoreboard

SRI LANKA:

W.U. Tharanga c Kamran b Rao Iftikhar 40

S.T. Jayasuriya b Rao Iftikhar 19

C.K. Kapugedera c Kamran b Rao Iftikhar 15

D.P.M.D. Jayawardene b Hafeez 83

L.P.C. Silva b Abdur Rehman 64

M.F. Maharoof c and b Hafeez 10

K.S. Lokuarachchi c Salman b Asif 2

T.M. Dilshan not out 28

H.A.P.W. Jayawardene run out 2

S.L. Malinga run out 11

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-5, W-9, NB-4) 22

TOTAL (for nine wickets, 50 overs) 296

FALL OF WKTS: 1-62, 2-73, 3-101, 4-225, 5-240, 6-244, 7-252, 8-258, 9-296.

DID NOT BAT: C.R.D. Fernando.

BOWLING: Mohammad Asif 10-1-76-1 (3nb); Najaf Shah 10-1-59-0 (1nb, 1w); Rao Iftikhar 10-0-53-3 (3w); Abdur Rehman 10-0-44-1 (1w); Mohammad Hafeez 10-0-55-2.

PAKISTAN:

Salman Butt b Maharoof 2

Mohammad Hafeez run out 34

Yasir Hameed c Kapugedera b Fernando 22

Mohammad Yousuf lbw b Fernando 5

Shoaib Malik not out 79

Fawad Alam c and b Fernando 0

Kamran Akmal run out 2

Abdur Rehman b Loku’chchi 10

Rao Iftikhar c P. J’wardene b Loku’chchi 18

Mohammad Asif run out 3

Najaf Shah lbw b Maharoof 0

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-1, NB-4) 6

TOTAL (all out, 42.5 overs) 181

FALL OF WKTS: 1-5, 2-61, 3-66, 4-68, 5-68, 6-70), 7-114, 8-166, 9-180.

BOWLING: Maharoof 8.5-0-43-2 (3nb, 1w); Malinga 8-0-33-0 (1nb); Fernando 7-1-20-3; Dilshan 4-0-19-0; Lokuarachchi 10-1-32-2; Jayasuriya 5-0-33-0.

RESULT: Sri Lanka won by 115 runs; Pakistan win series 2-1.

UMPIRES: M.R. Benson (England) and R.B. Tiffin (Zimbabwe).

TV UMPIRE: S.L. Shastri (India).

MATCH REFEREE: J. Srinath (India).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Dilhara Fernando.

MAN-OF-THE-SERIES (shared): Shahid Afridi and Mahela Jayawardene.

FIRST MATCH: Pakistan won by five wickets.

SECOND MATCH: Pakistan won by 98 runs.—Agencies