SHARJAH, April 5: Pakistan cricket captain Rashid Latif hailed “a perfect plan” done after his side continued their unbeaten run at the Sharjah Cricket Cup with victory over Sri Lanka on Friday.

Earlier they had beaten Zimbabwe in the opener of the four-nation tournament on Thursday.

“Everything went according to our plans — and that’s quite pleasing” Rashid told newsmen. “We knew Sri Lanka were a strong side, hence we did the homework.”

Pakistan restricted Sri Lanka to 223-6 from 50 overs and cruised to a seven-wicket win.

They are now guaranteed a place in the final of the four-nation tournament on Thursday.

Kumar Sangakkara hit 100 off 111 balls after Sri Lanka lost openers Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya cheaply.

“The idea was to get rid of Atapattu and Jayasuriya, who we all know are very dangerous players,” added Rashid.

“Once we took the wickets of both the Sri Lankan openers, and that too by the 15th over, we knew we could control the match and that’s what we did.”

Sri Lanka skipper Jayasuriya was disappointed with the performance of his batsmen.

“We didn’t get enough runs on the board,” he said. “Maybe another 40 or 50 runs would have made the difference.”—PPI