49.2 overs Pakistan 276 for 3 (Inzamam-ul-Haq 118*, Naved Latif 113) beat Sri Lanka 272 for 9 (M Jayawardene 84, A Gunawardene 57, Shoaib Akhtar 3-45) by seven wickets
Scorecard

A stunning 219-run third-wicket partnership between Naved Latif and Inzamam-ul-Haq, both of whom struck centuries, gave Pakistan a seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the dress rehearsal for Sunday's final. It was typical of Pakistan, who invariably crank their game up a couple of notches in the second leg of a Sharjah tournament.

Earlier Sri Lanka had reached 272, thanks mainly to a gorgeous run-a-ball 84 from Mahela Jayawardene. But that total was buried under the weight of Pakistan's two centurions. Inzamam's eighth hundred was a masterful one-day innings - full of beautiful glides and drives with the big shot thrown in at appropriate moments – but Naved's was the story of the day. In only his second international match, he had crawled to a tortuous 33 in 78 balls… and then Sanath Jayasuriya served up a full-toss that was clubbed for six. By the time he holed out to long-on off Kumara Dharmasena, for 113 off 141 balls, he had played rousing shots all around the wicket, off both the pace bowlers and the spinners.

Sri Lanka compounded their problems by letting both batsmen off the hook – Russel Arnold grassed Naved's return catch with the total on 90, and substitute fielder Muttiah Muralitharan put Inzamam down when there were still more than 80 runs to get. Towards the end, Inzamam iced Pakistan's cake with two sixes – an obscenely large leg-side swing off Vaas, and a breathtakingly easy sweep off Dharmasena.

Jayawardene had batted beautifully through the middle overs of the Sri Lankan innings to set what had at the time appeared a stiff target for Pakistan. He too had his slices of luck - he was still in the 20s when umpire George Sharp failed to request a TV replay after Rashid Latif's behind-the-back flick onto the stumps. And on 35, a thin edge flew through Latif's gloves for a four. But it was, for the rest, an innings so sweet that you wanted to wrap it up and give it to your best friend.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Avishka Gunawardene had made a slow but assured start as Waqar and Shoaib bowled a quick, straight, and mostly back-of-a-length nine-over opening spell that cost only 29 runs. But Gunawardene opened his shoulders against the medium pace of Abdur Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood, and by the 15th over he and Jayasuriya had put on a more than respectable 77 runs.

They parted company in the 20th over when Jayasuriya, on 36, tried to chip Shahid Afridi to the leg side, playing for turn that never existed. The leading edge ballooned to Shoaib Akhtar who jogged in from long-on and pouched it comfortably. It was the cue for Shoaib to come on for his second spell and he broke through with his first ball, as Gunawardene's hook caught the top edge and lobbed to Inzamam-ul-Haq at mid-on.

Marvan Atapattu and Jayawardene then milked 55 runs when nobody seemed to be looking, before Atapattu's dabble at an Abdur Razzaq delivery had him caught behind. Jayawardene added 66 more runs with Russel Arnold to lay down an excellent platform. Arnold had reached 19 when Waqar's slower offcutter trapped him lbw. Three balls later, Waqar turned up the pace several notches to fizz one past Kumar Sangakkara's outside edge and knock over the off stump.

The eventual total of 272 didn't stretch Pakistan, but has set up an exciting final on Sunday.

Teams
Sri Lanka 1 Sanath Jayasuriya (capt), 2 Avishka Gunawardene, 3 Marvan Atapattu 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Russel Arnold, 6 Kumara Sangakkara, 7 Romesh Kaluwitharana (wk), 8 Kumara Dharmasena, 9 Chaminda Vaas, 10 Charitha Buddika Fernando, 11 Prabhat Nissanka.

Pakistan 1 Naved Latif, 2 Shahid Afridi, 3 Yousuf Youhana, 4 Inzamam-ul-Haq , 5 Younis Khan, 6 Rashid Latif (wk), 7 Abdur Razzaq, 8 Azhar Mahmood, 9 Shoaib Malik, 10 Waqar Younis (capt), 11 Shoaib Akhtar.

Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden.com India

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