Sri Lanka crashed to an 83 run defeat in the 1st ODI against Pakistan at the Dubai International Stadium earlier today after being restricted to 209/8 by Rumman Raees and Hasan Ali.
Sri Lankan opening pair Upul Tharanga and Niroshan DIckwella started the chase off well, racing to 30 in the 1st three overs. However, Raees struck to remove Dickwella in the 4th over and the hosts never looked back from then on. Dinesh Chandimal was surprisingly pushed up the order ahead of Kusal Mendis but did not last long, as Raees trapped him right in front. He came back later in the game to claim the wicket of Lahiru Thirimanne, but the win was in the bag by then with Sri Lanka having already lost 6 wickets.
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Sri Lanka never looked in with a chance. Tharanga struggled against Mohammed Hafeez and was ultimately bowled by him. Kusal Mendis was set up with a bouncer by Hasan Ali and Milinda Siriwardene got an absolute peach of a delivery straight after to be bowled for a golden duck.
With Sri Lanka playing just 6 batsmen, the game was all but done and dusted by then. Thisara Perera and Thirimanne fought on briefly and so did the tail but 292 ultimately proved too much. Akila Dananjaya managed to frustrate the Pakistanis with an unbeaten 50.
Earlier in the day Sri Lanka skipper Tharanga won the toss and opted to bowl first on a dry pitch, as Lahiru Gamage and Jeffrey Vandersay made their way into the team. Pakistan got off to a slow start as Gamage struck to remove a struggling Ahmed Shehzad for a 12-ball duck. Fakhar Zaman seemed to be in the kind of form we’d seen from him during the Champions Trophy a couple of months ago but was done in by a ripper from Akila Dananjaya as the off spinner got the ball to spin away from him and crash into the off stump.
Mohammed Hafeez joined Azam in the middle and the pair put on 49 for the 3rd wicket but it was the arrival of Shoaib Malik that gave Pakistan some momentum. Malik played a characteristically aggressive innings, running well between the wickets and hitting the bad balls to the boundary. With the pair still at the crease with 5 overs to go, Pakistan was looking good to sprint past the 300 run mark. However, some good bowling by Suranga Lakmal and some careless batting saw the Pakistanis falter as they ended up on 292.
Sri Lanka looked energetic in the field, with their ground fielding in particular being quite good for much of the match. However, some crucial chances and mishaps gave away a few extra runs.
Sri Lanka lost their only review to a poor call down leg. Had they not, they could have had Azam later on as he nicked one down the leg side. Azam certainly rode his luck on his way to his 6th ODI century in his 32nd game as Chandimal put a tough chance down at short midwicket.
This was Sri Lanka’s 8th straight loss in ODIs with their last win coming against Zimbabwe way back in July.
The 2nd ODI will be played on Monday 16th of October Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
