Anand Vasu
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Final: Sri Lanka v Pakistan at Sharjah, 4 Nov 2001 Anand Vasu |
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Pakistan innings:
Sri Lanka innings: Pre-game: |
A mixed bag from recent centurion Naved Latif saw him perish earlier than was necessary. After striking a near perfect cover drive and a powerful pull shot, Latif played one shot too many and was caught at the wicket off the bowling of the skiddy Nissanka. In contrast to the manner in which he played the last game, Latif made a breezy 23 off 22 balls.
Yousuf Youhana replaced Latif and the scoreboard kept ticking over. No fancy shots were played and the runs steadily accumulated. Just when it looked as though the Sri Lankans were beginning to lose hope, Jayasuriya turned to his strike bowler – Muthiah Muralitharan.
Bowling the 14th over with the field restrictions still in effect, Murali was not afraid to flight the ball. Tossing the first one up, he had to watch in dismay as Afridi charged down the track and lofted the ball back into the stands at long on. Unnerved but certainly not discouraged, Murali pegged away. Three balls later Murali had sweet revenge when Afridi came down the track and failed to connect properly with one of his big heaves. Dragging the ball to the on side, Afridi (35 runs, 38 balls, 1x6, 1x4) was caught in the deep by Vaas.
Inzamam-ul-Haq had just joined Youhana at the crease when 15 overs were completed.
The scorecard is a dismal one if you are a Sri Lanka supporter. No one really managed to get going. Russel Arnold held the innings together with a patient 47, but the lack of support meant that Sri Lanka could not post a genuinely challenging total. From, being 112/5 in 30 overs, things began to go rapidly downhill. Shoaib Akhtar breathing fire trapped Chamara Silva (10) in front of the stumps. Waqar Younis followed suit and had Buddhika Fernando playing and missing at a ball that would have hit the off stump.
Muthiah Muralitharan attempted a few massive heaves in his inimitable fashion but was not successfully. After being put down once by substitute fielder Shoaib Malik at mid-off he finally holed out to Naved Latif at long on.
Chaminda Vaas tried to delay the inevitable, but could not make a significant difference to the score. He was unbeaten on 10 when Waqar cleaned up Prabath Nissanka.
At the end of the day, it’s a bit of an anticlimax at the Sharjah Cricket Association. A run fest was expected, that is what the fans love the most. Low scores like this one however, have a way of causing problems for the best teams in the world. Pakistan should not be overconfident and Sri Lanka will be going all out to capture wickets.
It was the fact that Pakistan captured wickets at regular intervals that undid Sri Lanka’s well made plans. Sanath Jayasuriya, after curbing all his natural strokemaking tendencies, could not stay at the wicket as long as he would have liked. After compiling a circumspect 34 that included 5 boundaries and tool all of 58 balls, Jayasuriya fell to part time leggie Shahid Afridi. Slipping a ball in just short of a length and outside the off, perhaps a touch quicker than most, Afridi had Jayasuriya attempting to cut. The faint edge was snapped up by Latif with ease.
Threatening to take the game away from Pakistan all on his own, Jayawardene pulled and drove with panache. The amount of time Jayawardene had to play his shots and the manner in which he got into position early were enough proof of his pedigree as a batsman. A heated spell between Jayawardene and Shoaib Akhtar however, saw the batsman lose his composure, and with it his wicket. Flashing hard at an express delivery outside the off, Jayawardene made the mistake of playing away from his body and paid the price. He was caught behind for 43 (61 balls, 3x4, 1x6).
Kumar Sangakkara, who replaced Jayawardene out in the middle did not last long. Snapped up by the Afridi-Latif combination in exactly the same manner in which Jayasuriya departed, Sangakkara made just 3 from a painful 18 balls.
Pakistan appear to have things very much under control, with the bulk of the Sri Lankan batting back in the pavilion.
The first casualty of the twin W’s was Gunawaradene, who simply could not break the shackles. The pressure exerted by Waqar forced Gunawardene to go after a delivery that would have normally sailed harmlessly through to the keeper. Fending at a ball that shaped away from the left-hander, Gunawardene only managed to present Azhar Mahmood at slip with a low catch.
Gunawardene managed just 2 off 11 balls as Waqar struck in the fourth over.
While Jayasuriya adjusted to the circumstances very quickly and adopted a defensive, wait-and-watch approach, his partner out in the middle, Marvan Atapattu was dealt a cracker of a delivery by Akram. The left-arm seamer softened up Atapattu with a few short deliveries before pushing one through a bit quicker. Trying to play at the ball, Atapattu tickled it through to stumper Rashid Latif.
Atapattu did not trouble the scorers.
As in the previous match, the replacement of Waqar and Akram by second string bowlers proved to be a release of carefully built up pressure. Mahela Jayawardene, in prime form, reached 25* (27b 2x4 1x6) while Jayasuriya had 22 to his name, at the end of 15 overs.
Pakistan, who rested Wasim Akram for the earlier encounter bring the veteran back, and Shoaib Malik loses his spot in the process. Naved Latif, who scored a pacy ton against Sri Lanka earlier retains his place.
The Sri Lankans meanwhile have opted to make no changes, going in with a full strength team. On winning the toss, Sanath Jayasuriya elected to bat. Chasing 250 plus totals under lights has not been easy this tournament and this would have influenced the Sri Lankan captain.
Pakistan team: Shahid Afridi, Naved Latif, Yousuf Youhana, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Wasim Akram, Abdur Razzaq, +Rashid Latif, *Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Azhar Mahmood
Sri Lanka team: *ST Jayasuriya, DA Gunawardene, MS Atapattu, DPMD Jayawardene, RP Arnold, K Sangakkara, LPC Silva, WPUJC Vaas, M Muralitharan, TCB Fernando, RAP Nissanka.
© CricInfo
Date-stamped : 04 Nov2001 - 23:05