So, here at Shere Bangla National Stadium Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets.
Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and elected to bat first on a pretty good pitch. They started off with a flyer but that didn't last long as Cheema picked up the two very important wickets of Jayawardene and Dilshan. Umar Gul and Hammad Azam also joined the party by picking up Chandimal and Thirimanne and left Sri Lanka stuttering at 65 for 4. But then Sangakkara and Tharanga got together started a partnership. This was were Misbah Ul Haq made a big mistake by setting a very defensive field and by not using his strike bowlers to break that partnership. This allowed the Sangakkara and Tharanga to take the score from 65 for 4 to 160 for 4. But Saeed Ajmal made sure that his captains mistake was not costly as he removed Tharanga and Maharoof in the batting power play. Cheema also returned and dismissed Malinga. Sangakkara was running out of partners so he tried to make some quick runs but was bowled by Cheema for a well played 71 (of 92 balls). In the end Sri Lanka were all out for 188 in 45.4 overs.
Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and elected to bat first on a pretty good pitch. They started off with a flyer but that didn't last long as Cheema picked up the two very important wickets of Jayawardene and Dilshan. Umar Gul and Hammad Azam also joined the party by picking up Chandimal and Thirimanne and left Sri Lanka stuttering at 65 for 4. But then Sangakkara and Tharanga got together started a partnership. This was were Misbah Ul Haq made a big mistake by setting a very defensive field and by not using his strike bowlers to break that partnership. This allowed the Sangakkara and Tharanga to take the score from 65 for 4 to 160 for 4. But Saeed Ajmal made sure that his captains mistake was not costly as he removed Tharanga and Maharoof in the batting power play. Cheema also returned and dismissed Malinga. Sangakkara was running out of partners so he tried to make some quick runs but was bowled by Cheema for a well played 71 (of 92 balls). In the end Sri Lanka were all out for 188 in 45.4 overs.
Mahela Jayawardene made sure that it was not going to be easy for Pakistan and kept an attacking field setting even after the power play. And this tactic worked as Lakmal and Prassana got early wickets, leaving Pakistan on 33 for 3. The going was tough as the attacking field setting didn't give the Pakistanis any easy runs. But Umar Akmal and Misbah got together and built a match winning partnership. Both the batsmen played sensible and didn't try anything risky in the beginning. But after staying at the crease for some time they began to time the ball well and the runs started coming quickly. The Sri Lankans morale depleted and they even dropped Umar Akmal once(when he was on 40). He got out eventually though, when Pakistan only needed 4 runs to win. That gave Hammad Azam the chance to score the winning runs and Pakistan won with 6 wickets and 61 balls remaining. They also got a bonus point, as they got to the target in 40 overs (the bonus point is going to be added in the points table).
Aizaz Cheema was the man-of-the-match with his 4 important wickets.
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