Monday, 7 October 2019

Sri Lanka set 183-run target for Pakistan to chase in second T20I

Second T20I between Pakistan and Srilanka
Sri Lanka have won the toss and opted to bat first against Pakistan in the second T20I at the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore.

The in-form Danushka Gunathilaka and Avishka Fernando opened the innings for Sri Lanka, whereas Imad Wasim and Mohammad Amir shared the new ball for the hosts.

Gunathilaka was again looking in the mood, hitting several boundaries early on. But Wasim struck in the 3rd over, having the leftie nick one back to Sarfaraz Ahmed. He contributed 15 this time.

The loss of their star batsman did not seem to bother the visitors who kept on finding boundaries. However, Fernando and newcomer Bhanuka Rajapaksa's promising looking partnership was broken in the 5th over when the former attempted a run against the gazelle-like Shadab Khan, who hit the bulls eyes. Sri Lanka were 41-2 at the end of a quarter of their overs.

Needlessly risky runs were a constant theme in the first few overs and Pakistan could have had another run out, had all their fielders been like Shadab.

Rajapaksa and Shehan Jayasuriya made sure that no further wickets were lost in the next five, taking the score to 80-2 at the end of 10 overs.

The hard-hitting Rajapaksa brought up his 50 off just 31 balls in the 12th over. He kept on pounding the Pakistani bowlers and had his side eyeing 200.

The 94-run stand between the two was finally broken in the 15th over when Asif Ali ran out Jayasuriya.

Rajapaksa (77) was caught in extra cover before Sri Lanka lost another to a run-out — the innings' third till that point.

Captain Dasun Shanaka's 27-run cameo helped Sri Lanka finish with 182-6 in their allotted 20 overs.

Pre-match chatter

Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad were retained despite their failure with the bat in the opening match.

Iftikhar Ahmed and Faheem Ashraf were replaced by Fakhar Zaman and Wahab Riaz.

Sri Lanka did not make any changes to the line-up that pretty much outclassed the hosts by 64 runs in the first T20 in Lahore on Saturday.

Playing XIs
Pakistan:

Fakhar Zaman, Ahmed Shehzad, Babar Azam, Umar Akmal, Sarfaraz Ahmed(capt&wk), Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Wahab Riaz, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hasnain

Sri Lanka: Danushka Gunathilaka, Avishka Fernando, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Dasun Shanaka(capt), Shehan Jayasuriya, Isuru Udana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Minod Bhanuka(wk), Lakshan Sandakan, Kasun Rajitha, Nuwan Pradeep




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