COLOMBO: Brilliant centuries by Muhammad Rashid and Riasat Khan helped Pakistan to a fabulous victory in the third ODI against Sri Lanka by 106 runs and inflict a 3-0 whitewash in the blind cricket ODI series here at the Bloomfield Cricket Ground on Monday.

Earlier, Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bowl first. Their decision proved productive in the 1st over of the innings when Matiullah, who was playing his first game in this series, was caught out without scoring a run.

Mohsin Khan and Badar Munir also returned to dugout at personal contributions of 18 and 29 runs respectively. With Pakistan at 84 for the loss of 3 wickets in 8 overs, and Sri Lanka clearly had an upper hand. However, the tide due to a brilliant 119 runs stand between Riasat Khan and Muhammad Rashid for the 4th wicket.

Riasat got out after scoring exactly 100 runs off just 69 balls. Wickets kept tumbling around Rashid but he kept playing his incredible knock. Assault in the last few overs propelled Pakistan to a massive 448 runs in 40 overs for the loss of 7 wickets. Rashid remained unbeaten on 179 runs off 100 balls, smashing 27 fours in his innings.

Suranga Sampath took 2 wickets for 51 runs and Upul Sanjeva also claimed 2 wickets for 68 runs.

The Target of 449 runs proved unsurmountable for the Sri Lankans and, though they tried their best to keep up with the required run rate, they could not hold their own in front of Pakistan’s potent bowling attack and their strong fielding and could manage 342 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in allotted 40 overs.

Dimithu Sandrawan scored a fine 107 runs off 83 balls and Ajit Silva scored 58 runs. Matiullah, Mohsin Khan and Fakhar claimed twowickets each.

Muhammad Rashid was declared Man of the Match.

This was Pakistan’s third clean sweeps over Sri Lanka in ODIs, with 2008 and 2016 being the previous two instances of whitewash.

The 3 match T-20 series will commence from Wednesday, February 27 at Bloomfield Ground Colombo.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2019