COLOMBO: Pakistan play their final match of their Sri Lanka tour here at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Saturday, when they take on the hosts in the second and final Twenty20.
Playing some top-class cricket, the visitors first knocked out Sri Lanka in the three-Test series, and then they outclassed the hosts in the five-game ODI series.
Continuing with their winning streak, Shahid Afridi and his men won the first T20 game against Lasith Malinga-captained Sri Lanka on Thursday.
Now the pumped-up Pakistan — given the manner they have fared so far on the tour — can surely end the tour with victory on Saturday.
The tourists’ top-order batting has been brilliant and has done the bulk of the scoring, which took the pressure off their middle-order batsmen who could play their natural-cum-aggressive game.
To add to Sri Lanka’s woes, Malinga’s fitness has remained questionable of late. If the veteran paceman continues to struggle, the selectors may not hesitate to replace him with a youngster who would be up and running right from the word go.
As regards Sri Lanka’s batting, their top-order batsmen, including seasoned Tillekaratne Dilshan, have failed miserably throughout.
Pakistan, on the other hand, have been quite shrewd, neutralising all the strategies that Sri Lanka had panned out for them.
The Sri Lankans, who changed their team combination many times, but were still found wanting against a formidable Pakistan, will certainly have to do something different on Saturday if they are to prevent the tourists from ending the tour on a high.
Teams
SRI LANKA: Lasith Malinga (captain), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kusal Perera, Kithruwan Vithanage, Dhananjaya de Silva, Angelo Mathews, Dasun Shanaka, Chamara Kapugedera, Shehan Jayasuriya, Thisara Perera, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nuwan Kulasekara, Binura Fernando, Chaturanga de Silva, Milinda Siriwardene.
PAKISTAN: Shahid Afridi (captain), Sarfraz Ahmed, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Mohammad Rizwan, Mukhtar Ahmed, Nauman Anwar, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Irfan, Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Shah, Imad Wasim, Zia-ul-Haq.
Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2015
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