That left Inzamam-ul-Haq and Younis Khan on the crease, and the asking rate was getting into the danger zone, around 6.5 an over. But as things got steeper and steeper, these were the two in-form batsmen to whom Pakistan could count to provide the blistering assault to deliver the win that could guarantee them a spot in the final.

The Lankans made a spirited start through the pace duo of Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa. Imran Nazir was embarrassed six times in succession, as throughout the opening over he flailed outside the off-stump only to be beaten comprehensively. Afridi had a similar start against Zoysa at the other end, until he latched on to a delivery outside the off-stump, only to see Muthiah Muralitharan taking the stunner at gully. Hopelessly out of form, Youhana, with scores of 0 and 15 in the first two matches, was promoted in the order to have a longish stay in the field.

And he along with Imran retrieved the situation to the extent that there were no further wickets, the strike was rotated and occasionaly boundaries were scored as well.

Imran hit the first four of the innings, driving Vaas to the cover boundary, and Youhana followed suit by imperiously despatching Zoysa for a four which would but for a couple of inches would have been a six.

Nazir then hit Zoysa and Vaas for a four apiece in three successive overs, before the 50 of the innings was raised in the 15th over, off deliveries.

The game was still quite a distance to go, and having survived the first onslaught, Pakistan needed to face further trial by Muralitharan and others.

When Pakistan resume their innings, the end result for them may depend on two things: the kind of start they get from their openers, Shahid Afridi and Imran Nazir, and how they counter Muthiah Muralitharan.

Yet in the earlier part of the session, such thoughts were far from their minds. With Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram adding a brace of wickets to add to their ever-mounting tally, they were all over Sri Lanka. At that point, Akram had just went past the 450-wicket mark with his first scalp of the day, that of Kumar Sangakkara, and as if to celebrate the occasion, he had added Mahela Jayawardene’s wicket to his tally too.

But the remainder of the evening was all Sri Lanka’s. While for the most part sedate 91-run stand off 138 balls for the fifth wicket between Atapattu and Arnold affected the recovery, and then better than a run a ball partnership between Atapattu and Chandana (107 off 105 deliveries) briskly restored the balance of the game in Sri Lanka’s favour.

It was first a nice recovery job, then great consolidation, followed up with a superb finish that brought Sri Lanka roaring back into the game. And it all took two partnerships to retrieve the situation in such a major way.

Having worked their way to recovery, Russell Arnold was now venturing shots; he went after Afridi with a wild shot, the swipe ending in Imran Nazir’s safe hands at short mid-wicket.

This brought Upul Chandana on the field. And he batted with gay abandon against whatever skipper Younis pitted against him. Such was the Lankan ascendancy that Pakistan’s fielding became ragged at the edges, and he was dropped twice by Razzaq, first at deep third man and then at long-off. But by the time he was disposed off, off the last ball of the innings, he had put on 64 runs just off 58 deliveries, with the help of nine fours – with none out of Akram, Waqar, Shoaib or Saqlain spared.

His partner, the unassuming grafter Atapattu in the meanwhile remained unbeaten at 77, compiled off 109 deliveries with five shots to the fence.

Though there was still some distance to go for the Lankans to put together something competitive on the board, but Atapattu and Arnold’s self-assurance had already restored some measure of respectability to their innings.

Both started the repair job in real earnest, cutting out more extravagant stuff from their shot selection, and instead focussing on rotation of strike. Such was the pace they set that between the 6th and 19th over there wasn’t a single boundary, when Arnold broke the ice by sending Abdul Razzaq delivery to the square leg fence.

The watchword still was caution, though both batsmen started opening up gradually, the most remarkable exhibition of this being Atapattu cracking two boundaries off Razzaq at square leg and extra cover. The first of these raised the 100 of the Sri Lanka innings, which had come off 154 deliveries.

The large holiday crowd had barely settled in its seats when they saw four wickets fall in less than six overs for the addition of only nine runs. It was a remarkable display of pace and swing bowling by the two aging maestros, and Jayasuriya must have wondered what had hit him.

The Sri Lankan captain won the toss in the afternoon, and, as is the wont these days, elected to bat these days. His decision must have been influenced because the other night the Pakistanis had made such a hash of their chase to lose the opening game. And Jayasuriya started well, the way he usually does, stroking the ball to all parts of the park. He hit Waqar’s second over, and the innings fourth for 14 runs, with the help of three fours predominantly behind the stumps on the leg side. In Waqar’s next over, he clubbed him to square third man fence, but Waqar almost immediately had his revenge by bowling him neck and crop.

Waqar struck again next over, this time Romesh Kaluwitharana edging one wide off the ‘keeper only to see Rashid Latif bring off a spectacular one-handed catch.

It was Akram’s turn to get into his wicket-taking ways and in two successive overs, he struck twice to extend his tally beyond another landmark, to 451 one-day wickets.

Pakistan had made a most emphatic start, but more than that the quality of cricket was of a very high grade, and the three veterans, Waqar, Akram and Rashid all had reason to be proud of their performance.

As for the Lankans, at 52 for four at the end of the 15th over, with all the strokemakers gone, Marwan Atapattu and Russel Arnold had a big repair job at hand.

Sri Lanka are on top of the points table after the first round on better run-rate, but all the three teams are equal on points.

The weather at Sharjah is a bit cooler today compared to previous days.

Sri Lanka have changed the batting order and little Kaluwitharana will open the batting with his captain. Sangakkara has been pushed back to the number three position.

Pakistan's opening pair did well yesterday but they need to do even better under lights tonight. Yousuf Youhana is due for runs having failed in both the previous innings so far.

Both the teams are playing unchanged sides.

Teams:

Sri Lanka team: *ST Jayasuriya, K Sangakkara, MS Atapattu, DPMD Jayawardene,RP Arnold, +RS Kaluwitharana, UDU Chandana, WPUJC Vaas, M Muralitharan, DNT Zoysa, TCB Fernando.

Pakistan: *Waqar Younis, Shahid Afridi, Imran Nazir, Yousuf Youhana, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Abdul Razzaq, +Rashid Latif, Saqlain Mushtaq, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar.