Pakistan A registered an easy 8 wicket victory over Sri Lanka A in the first unofficial 50 over match at Cheltenham yesterday.
Pakistan Skipper Babar Azam won the toss and elected to field first. Niroshan Dickwella and Dhananjaya De Silva opened for the Lankans but Dickwella did not last long as he was dismissed for just 9 runs by Mohommad Abbas. The Sri Lankan’s adopted an aggressive approach from the word go which cost them a few wickets early on. Mahela Udwatte came in at first drop and only lasted 9 deliveries. De Silva looked confident up front but his knock came to an end when he was dismissed for 27 by Abbas. Sri Lanka were in a spot of bother at 53 for 3.
Bhanuka Rajapaksa and skipper Ashan Priyanjan steadied the ship after the early wickets but their partnership did not last long as Rajapaksa was sent back to the pavilion for 29 runs. It went from bad to worse for the Lankans when Ashan Priyanjan lost his wicket for just 14 runs. With half of the side back in the pavilion the Sri Lankans had to dig deep but they just couldn’t build any partnerships.
Angelo Perera and Sachith Pathirana added 37 runs. Angelo top scored with a valuable 35 and the rest of the batters got into double figures but failed to carry on. Ultimately the Lankan’s could only manage 199 in 37.5 overs. Abbas did the job with the new ball while Mohommad Azghar bagged 4 wickets in the middle overs.
With just 200 runs to defend, early wickets would be the key for the Lankans. But the Pakistani openers had other plans. Sharjeel Khan and Fakhar Zaman put up 158 runs for the first wicket which took Sri Lanka out of the game completely. Sharjeel Khan top scored with 90 off just 74 with twelve 4’s and four 6’s. His partner Fakhar scored 70 runs. The openers were sent back to the pavilion by Kasun Rajitha but it was too little too late for the Lions to make comeback in the match.
The Pakistani’s got over the line in just 33.5 overs with 8 wickets in hand.
