Sohaib Maqsood and Fawad Alam recorded the highest partnership for the 6th wicket in the Pakistan ODI history as they guided their country to a thrilling 4-wicket win over the hosts, Sri Lanka in their 1st ODI match played at Mahinda Rajapakshe International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
Upcoming and young middle order pair of Alam and Maqsood put on 147 runs in 117 balls for the 6th wicket as they left Sri Lanka scratching their heads after dominating the game for most of the day. Man of the Match Sohaib Maqsood played sensibly as he and Alam made sure they build a platform in the middle overs of the innings after being 106 for 5 by maneuvering the strike and keeping up to the run-rate before launching themselves during the batting powerplay. Maqsood remained unbeaten on 89 from 73 deliveries while Shahid ‘Boom Boom’ Afridi scored the winning runs in the penultimate ball of the match during his knock of 14 quick runs at the end.
The Lankan bowlers looked out of sorts when Alam and Maqsood were counter-attacking as they bowled loose balls which were asking to be hit. One missed stumping and two run-out at the latter part of the Pakistan innings changed the luck for the hosts.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan’s oldest player to play ODI’s, Misbah Ul-haq won the toss of coin and elected to field first to give his three-man left arm seam attack the chance to extract the best out of the Hambanthota surface which was under covers for the last couple of days.
7 foot 1 inch tall Mohammed Irfan grabbed his 1st international wicket in 10 months when he trapped TM Dilshan right in front of the stumps in the 5th over of the match for just 6 runs. Heavy rains arrived at the completion of the 6th over and the delay caused the match being a 45-over affair since then. After putting on 39 runs for the 2nd wicket with Kumar Sangakkara, Upul Tharanga was caught behind by Umar Akmal off Wahab Riaz for 18 and few balls later Kumar Sangakkara ended a promising start as he chopped through straight to Ahmed Shehzad who took a simple catch as the Lankan one drop batsman tried to slash the offspinner Mohammad Hafeez off the back foot. Sri Lankans were pegged back more when Dinesh Chandimal fell to his own weakness once more as he top-edged a pull shot straight to Wahab Riaz off Irfan’s short pitched, well directed bouncer as the hosts were struggling at 75/4.
Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews (R) is congratulated by his teammate Mahela Jayawardene (L) after scoring a half-century during the first One Day International (ODI) match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan
Mahela Jayawardene who retired from Test cricket last week was joined by in-form skipper Angelo Mathews and the experienced pair slowly and steadily resurrected the Lankan innings. Mahela and Angelo kept on pushing the singles and picking up the odd boundary against the Pakistan spin-attack which was minus Saeed Ajmal and it lacked potency with Shahid Afridi and Mohammed Hafeez easing the pressure of the 5th wicket duo by giving them easy opportunities to score runs.
Pakistan managed to end an exciting 116 runs stand during the batting powerplay as Mahela Jayawardene was run-out for a well-made 63 runs in 66 balls as he failed to get past the wicket-keeper Umar Akmal while trying to sneak a single. Mathews continued to dominate the bowling as he shifted his gears into the attacking mode with his colleague Thisara Perera at the crease. Wahab Riaz cleaned out Perera and Mathews in successive overs as the Lankan captain made his highest ODI score of 89 surpassing his previous best of 80* against the same opposition.
25-year old Ashan Priyanjan came to bat with only handful of overs left and he turned on his cheeky shots to great effect giving the much needed aggression for Sri Lanka in the final overs as his brilliant little cameo of 15-ball unbeaten 39 runs which included 8 fours helped Sri Lanka end their innings on 275 for the loss of 7 wickets in 45 overs.
Pakistan needed 275 runs in 45 overs according to the D/L method to win the match and they got off to a steady start as their opening pair putting on 39 runs before Angelo Mathews weaved his magic once again with ball this time around as he trapped Hafeez for 21 runs and he captured his 2nd wicket dismissing the veteran Younis Khan for 3 in successive overs.
Thisara Perera gave his team a crucial breakthrough as he made the dangerous Umar Akmal to play a loose shot and go back to the pavilion for 15. Settled opener, Ahmed Shehzad was castled by a stunning in-deeper by Perera for 49 runs and soon afterwards Misbah was dismissed by Rangana Herath as he tried to paddle-sweep the left arm spinner but ended up holing out to Sangakkara who took an excellent catch moving to his left and Pakistan were wobbling at 106/5 at the halfway stage of the innings before Maqsood and Alam pulled a rabbit out of the hat.
Brief Scores
Pakistan 277 for 6 (Maqsood 89, Fawad 62) beat Sri Lanka 275 for 7 (Mathews 89, Jayawardene 63, Wahab 3-50) by four wickets (D/L method)
Man of the match – Sohaib Maqsood
Full Scorecard
