(MENAFN- Arab Times) Shahid Afridi and Anwar Ali played key roles as Pakistan ended a successful tour of Sri Lanka with a thrilling onewicket victory in the second Twenty20 international in Colombo on Saturday. Pakistan recovered from 40-5 in the eighth over to surpass Sri Lanka's challenging 172-7 with four balls to spare with Imad Wasim striking the winning six off left-arm seamer Binura Fernando. Skipper Afridi led the way with a 22- ball 45 that included four sixes and a boundary, before Anwar smashed 46 off 17 balls in a match-winning knock that contained four sixes and three fours.
Imad, who remained unbeaten on 24, helped Anwar add 58 for the eighth wicket as the tourists recorded a heart-stopping win in front of a sell-out crowd of 35,000 at the Premadasa stadium that briefly included Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena. Pakistan, who won the first T20 match by 29 runs on Thursday, completed a remarkable treble on the six-week tour, having earlier won the Test series 2-1 and the one-dayers 3-2. Afridi played down his own contribution, focusing instead on the contributions of the younger players.
"I think 170 was chaseable, but we panicked early on," he said. "Then came these awesome innings from Imad and Anwar. Hopefully they will continue to do well in the future also. "I have an excellent bunch of guys, who have given me hope for the future." Fernando, a lean 20-year-old playing only his second international match, gave Sri Lanka a flying start with a double strike in his second over. He bowled Ahmed Shehzad with a slower delivery and then forced Mukhtar Ahmed to top-edge a bouncer to Chamara Kapugedera at mid-wicket. Pakistan's top order caved in as Mohammad Hafeez and Umar Akmal were run out and senior batsman Shoaib Malik was stumped.
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Heavy rain washed out the third day's play in the second and final Test between Bangladesh and South Africa at the Shere- Bangla stadium in Dhaka on Saturday. Match officials called off play at 3:05 pm (0905 GMT) as the rain continued. Not a single ball was bowled on the second day after Bangladesh reached 246-8 in their first innings on the opening day. The highlight of the second Test so far is South African pacer Dale Steyn's 3- 30, which enabled him to become just the 13th cricketer in history to claim 400- plus Test wickets.
Scoreboard
COLOMBO, Aug 1, (AFP): Full scoreboard of the
second Twenty20 international between Pakistan
and Sri Lanka at the Premadasa stadium in Colombo
on Saturday:
SRI LANKA:
K. Perera b Malik""""""""""""""""..19
T. Dilshan c Hafeez b Anwar """"""""""..10
S. Jayasuriya c Imad b Tanvir """"""""""40
D. de Silva b Afridi""""""""""""""""14
T. Perera st Rizwan b Malik""""""""""""1
M. Siriwardana c Mukhtar b Irfan """""""".23
C. Kapugedera not out """""""""""""..48
D. Shanaka run out """"""""""""""""7
Extras: (lb3, w7) """""""""""""""""10
Total (for seven wickets, 20 overs)"""""""172
Fall of wickets: 1-24 (Dilshan), 2-32 (K. Perera),
3-61 (de Silva), 4-64 (T. Perera), 5-90 (Jayasuriya),
6-145 (Siriwardana), 7-172 (Shanaka).
Bowling: Anwar 4-0-40-1 (w1), Tanvir 4-0-44-1
(w1), Malik 3-0-16-2, Irfan 4-0-31-1, Afridi 4-0-30-1,
Imad 1-0-8-0 (w5).
PAKISTAN:
Mukhtar Ahmed c Kapugedera b Fernando """..4
Ahmed Shehzad b Fernando """""""""""7
Mohammad Hafeez run out """"""""""".11
Shoaib Malik st K.Perera b Siriwardana"""""..8
Umar Akmal run out""""""""""""""""4
Mohammad Rizwan b T. Perera"""""""""17
Shahid Afridi b Jayasuriya""""""""""""45
Imad Wasim not out """""""""""""""24
Anwar Ali c K. Perera b Malinga """"""""..46
Sohail Tanvir run out"""""""""""""""..1
Mohammad Irfan not out """"""""""""".1
Extras: (lb1, w5) """""""""""""""""..6
Total (for nine wickets, 19.2 overs)"""""""174
Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Shehzad), 2-16 (Mukhtar),
3-33 (Hafeez), 4-40 (Akmal), 5-40 (Malik), 6-101
(Rizwan), 7-107 (Afridi), 8-165 (Anwar), 9-167
(Tanvir).
Bowling: Fernando 3.2-0-33-2 (w5), Jayasuriya
4-0-37-1, T. Perera 4-0-27-1, Siriwardana 2-0-17-1,
Vandersay 2-0-19-0, Malinga 4-0-40-1
Pakistan won by one wicket, take series 2-0
Toss: Sri Lanka
Umpires: Raveendra Wimalasiri (SRI) and
Ruchira Palliyaguruge (SRI)
TV umpire: Ranmore Martinesz (SRI)
Match referee: Javagal Srinath (IND)
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