Sri Lanka v Pakistan, 3rd Test, Pallekele, 5th day

Pakistan 226 (Shafiq 75, Misbah 40, Perera 4-63) and 380 for 8 dec (Ali 136, Shafiq 100*) drew with Sri Lanka 337 (Paranavitana 75, Perera 75, Junaid 5-70) and 195 for 4 (Sangakkara 74*, Chandimal 65, Ajmal 3-50)

Azhar Ali falls after scoring a crucial century

Tea on Day 4: Sri Lanka have fought back in the afternoon session restricting Pakistan to 210 for 4 in 70 overs. The hosts claimed two important wickets to slow down the progress of Pakistan. Azhar Ali batted out the session safely to inch towards a century.

Pakistan was looking comfortable at the start of the session as Azhar Ali and Younis Khan defied the Sri Lankan bowling. However, against the run of play, Rangana Herath got the wicket of Younis Khan (19 from 50 balls) when the veteran batsman skipped down the track but only to glove an arm ball onto the pad and the resulting catch was taken by a forward diving Tharanga Paranavitana one handed at silly point. It was an end to a promising 48-run stand for the third wicket.

Herath very soon got the wicket of the Pakistani Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq (5) when the latter edged a drive off a near yorker to an alert Mahela Jayawardene at slip. Pakistan at this stage were under pressure with the lead only at 65 runs with six wickets in hand. Fortunately by Tea, Pakistan found another promising partnership between Azhar Ali (97* from 207 balls with 9 fours) and Asad Shafiq (16*) which took the lead to 99 runs.

Lunch on Day 4: Pakistan are nicely placed at 119 for 2 in 38 overs by Lunch on Day 4. The visitors are into a lead of 8 runs thanks to a solid partnership between overnight batsmen Mohammad Hafeez and Azhar Ali.

Sri Lanka could get only one wicket that of Mohammad Hafeez (52 from 100 balls with 6 fours) in the entire morning session when he edged his drive off a widish half volley from Dilhara Fernando to slip in the 36th over.

At lunch, Pakistan have Azhar Ali (48*) joined by veteran Younis Khan, who is on 2*.

Build Up to Day 4: The third and final Test at Pallekele is headed towards an exciting finish as Pakistan are under pressure at 27 for 1 after conceding a 111-run lead in the first innings. The pitch at Pallekele has been spicy with the seamers getting plenty of movement off it should they get their lengths right.

Beginning the morning for Pakistan are going to be Mohammad Hafeez on 8* and Azhar Ali on 6*. Pakistan will have to be extremely positive and be prepared to put away the bad balls for runs. Sri Lanka on the other hand will have to bowl and field well to sustain the pressure on the visitors.

Squads for second Pakistan-Sri Lanka Test

COLOMBO: Rival squads for the second cricket Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka starting at the Sinhalese Sports Club on Saturday:

Pakistan (from): Misbah-ul Haq (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Mohammad Ayub, Asad Shafiq, Adnan Akmal, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Mohammad Sami, Faisal Iqbal, Junaid Khan, Afaq Raheem, Aizaz Cheema.

Sri Lanka (from): Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tharanga Paranavitana, Kumar Sangakkara, Thilan Samaraweera, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Prasanna Jayawardene, Suraj Randiv, Rangana Herath, Nuwan Kulasekara, Nuwan Pradeep, Thisara Perera, Jeevan Mendis, Dilhara Fernando.

Misbah gets test ban for slow over-rate

Misbah-ul-Haq suspended for over-rate offence

DUBAI: Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq has been banned from the first test against Sri Lanka in Galle that starts on Friday as punishment for his team's slow over-rate in the final match of the one-day series.

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Sri Lanka-Pakistan ODIs to have reserve days

COLOMBO: The remaining two matches in the one-day series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan will have reserve days due to rains in the country, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) announced on Friday.

The last two day-night games of the five-match series are scheduled to be played in Colombo on Saturday and Monday with rain forecast for both days.

"Sri Lanka Cricket is pleased to announce that a reserve day has been allocated for the fourth and fifth one-day internationals against Pakistan," the SLC said in a statement.

Rain has already affected the series, reducing the opening match in Pallekele to a 42-overs-a-side affair and restricting the third game in Colombo to just 6.2 overs before it was abandoned.

The series is currently tied 1-1, with Pakistan winning the opening match by six wickets and Sri Lanka taking the second by 76 runs. The one-dayers will be followed by a three-Test series, which opens in Galle on June 22.

Sri Lanka v Pakistan, 2nd ODI, Pallekele

Sri Lanka 280 for 4 (Dilshan 119*, Jayawardene 53) beat Pakistan 204 (Azhar 96, Perera 6-44) by 76 runs.

Dilshan shared shared stands of 37 with Tharanga and 47 with Kumar Sangakkara. Chandimal and Dilshan ensured the run-rate didn't drop after that dismissal, knocking the singles and scoring boundaries when the spinners, in particular, erred in length. A sweep off Afridi brought up Dilshan's fifty.

Afridi trapped Chandimal lbw but there was no respite for Pakistan as what followed was Sri Lanka's most productive partnership, of 86. Jayawardene, no stranger to unconventional shots, unsettled the spinners with a delicate late cut, a Dilscoop, a paddle sweep, reverse sweep and a conventional sweep.

Dilshan nudged and punched the singles during the stand, allowing Jayawardene to play the aggressor. Though Dilshan slowed down after getting his century, it didn't cause a slowdown because Perera tonked two fours and two sixes in a 14-ball 24 to lift Sri Lanka to a challenging score.


Pakistan got more than what would have expected from a makeshift opener. Azhar did well to shrug off the tag of being a 'Test-match player'. It was classical batsmanship on view as Azhar relied purely on timing to fetch his boundaries. With minimal foot movement, he managed to drive on the up and yet place it in the gaps through the off side. The pace at which he scored would have surprised Sri Lanka. The short of a length deliveries were punched off the back foot, while the fuller ones were driven through the covers.

Sri Lanka's seamers may have failed to make early inroads but Perera more than made up for that. He sent back Mohammad Hafeez off his first ball, flinging himself in the opposite direction of his follow-through to pull off a return catch. He then had Younis Khan nicking to the wicketkeeper and later sparked Pakistan's slide by trapping Misbah-ul-Haq lbw.

Unlike Sri Lanka, Pakistan tinkered with their combination, going in with only five specialist batsmen and paid the price for it. Azhar Ali, who was promoted up the order, played a wonderful knock, with the assistance of some well-timed boundaries. He deserved a century but just fell short of the mark. Also, Thisara Perera’s cunning bowling and fielding was too much for Pakistan to fight against.

World Top Seamers set up easy win for Pak in opening ODI at Pallekele

Pakistan 135 for 4 (Hafeez 37, Akmal 36*) beat
Sri Lanka 135 for 8 (Thirimanne 42*, Gul 3-24, Sami 3-19) 
by six wickets (D/L method).

Sri Lanka: TM Dilshan, WU Tharanga, DPMD Jayawardene (Captain), LD Chandimal, KC Sangakkara (Wicket Keeper), HDRL Thirimanne, AD Mathews, NLTC Perera, HMRKB Herath, KMDN Kulasekara, SL Malinga

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (Captain), Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Sarfraz Ahmed (Wicket Keeper), Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Sami


 PALLEKELE: Pacemen Umar Gul and Mohammad Sami
each took three wickets as Pakistan posted a comfortable six-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the first one-day international in Pallekele on Thursday.
Scorecard

Man-of-the-match Gul finished with 3-24 and Sami with 3-19 before Pakistan achieved a rain-revised target of 135 with more than seven overs to spare in the day-night match for a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

The duo helped Pakistan restrict the hosts to 135-8 in a match reduced to 42-overs-a-side due to the poor conditions.

Opener Mohammad Hafeez top-scored with 37, while Umar Akmal (36 not out) and skipper Misbah-ul-Haq (30) were the other main scorers as Pakistan recorded their ninth one-day win over Sri Lanka in their last 11 matches.

Misbah added 51 runs for the third wicket with Hafeez after two wickets had fallen for 27 and then 55 for the fourth with Akmal.

Pakistan's win was set up by bowlers in seaming conditions as Gul took three wickets in a sharp opening spell, removing skipper Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dinesh Chandimal to send Sri Lanka reeling at 23-3.

He was superbly backed by Sami, who dismissed Kumar Sangakkara and all-rounder Angelo Mathews in his first two overs to reduce the hosts to 41-5.

Lahiru Thirimanne, who added 50 for the eighth wicket with Nuwan Kulasekara (18), top-scored for Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 42 while extras contributed 31, the second-highest of the innings.

Thisara Perera (17) and Upul Tharanga (10) were the other batsmen to reach double-figures.

Sangakkara, who took 20 deliveries to open his account, made just nine runs before being trapped leg-before while Mathews was caught at first slip by Misbah for no score.

Off-spinner Hafeez bagged two of the last three wickets to finish with an impressive 2-20 off 10 overs.

Gul struck in his third over when he had opener Dilshan (five) caught by Saeed Ajmal at mid-on and then trapped Jayawardene (three) leg-before in his next over.

He put more pressure on Sri Lanka when he bowled Chandimal for no score in his fifth over.

The second one-dayer will also be played in Pallekele on Saturday and the last three games in Colombo on June 13, 16 and 18.

Pallekele ODI resumes after rain interruption

Hosts Sri Lanka have won the toss and elected to bat first in the opening ODI at Pallekele against Pakistan. Both the teams have made a few changes to their line-ups compared to the ones used in the T20I Series. The average score batting first at the ground is around 240 and under lights, the pitch is expected to aid seam bowling. The average score batting second is just around 190 at this venue.

Sri Lanka v Pakistan, 1st ODI - 07 June 2012

Following the drawn T20 series, Pakistan and Sri Lanka now face off in the longer version of the shorter format of the game. Despite the teams being evenly matches in the T20s, Pakistan will go into the one-dyers with a slight upper hand. This is because, they are the only team to have a great record against the Lankans even in the latter’s home den. Further, Pakistan have won five of the last six games played between the two sides. This, however, is an altogether new series and Sri Lanka would be looking to make a fresh start.


For the Lankans to do well, they will need good support for their two key players Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. More often than not in Pakistan-Lanka contests, the two stalwarts have risen to the occasion only for the others to let the team down. This team has a more balanced look though and hence Jayawardene would be hopeful of himself and Sangakkara getting good back up. Significantly, they will want both Jayawardene and Sangakkara to be on top of their game.


A big reason for Sri Lanka's revival was contributions from players like Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne, who took the burden off the senior batsmen. The support cast grew in confidence and the allrounders provided good balance in foreign conditions. However, Sri Lanka ran out of steam during the third final of the CB series and arrived in Bangladesh for the Asia Cup looking jaded and lost all three games. Despite the heartening performance in Australia, Sri Lanka have a lot of catching up to do, having won only eight of their last 24 games. Their key players, who were part of the IPL, will also have to make the adjustment from Twenty20 cricket to the 50-over format.


Pakistan's recent form has been more impressive. After suffering a 4-0 loss against England in the UAE, they won the Asia Cup in a close final against Bangladesh. The ODI squad led by Misbah-ul-Haq is stronger than their experimental Twenty20 team as well, and it has been strengthened by Sohail Tanvir's retention. Tanvir impressed during his Twenty20 comeback and was chosen as a replacement once opening batsman Nasir Jamshed was injured. Pakistan are a batsman short, though, and could be stretched if Misbah and younis Khan fail. It will be up to the unpredictable Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi to step up.

Sohail Tanvir retained for Sri Lanka ODIs 2012

Pakistan fast bowler Sohail Tanvir has been retained for the ODIs in Sri Lanka and will replace the injured opening batsman Nasir Jamshed in the squad. Tanvir impressed in the two Twenty20s in Hambantota, bowling economically and taking four wickets. He also picked up the Man-of-the-Series award.

On the request of team management, chief selector Iqbal Qasim in consultation with the National Selection Committee has recommended the inclusion of Tanvir in the ODI Squad for the series. The chairman of the PCB has approved the replacement.

"In view of the request from the team management and keeping in consideration the current form of Sohail Tanvir, the selection committee has decided that he may be retained for the ODIs in Sri Lanka." Qasim said.

Jamshed, who was originally named in the ODI and T20 squads, was ruled out before the team left for Sri Lanka due to a fractured left index finger. The PCB hadn't named a replacement back then.

Tanvir, who was named only in the Twenty20 squad for the current tour, last represented Pakistan in ODIs during the tour of Bangladesh in December 2011 where he played two matches but failed to pick up a wicket. He will miss at least the first two matches of this season's Friends Life t20 after signing up with English county Worcestershire.

All-rounder Afridi, BOOM BOOM Fire Pak to Series-leveling win in 2nd T20 :)

<><>Pakistan 122 for 6 (Afridi 52*, Kulasekara 2-13) beat 
Sri Lanka 99 (Afridi 2-17) by 23 runs<><><><>
SCORE CARD

Shahid Afridi rescued a limp Pakistan innings from despair and built his team a middling total with an aggressive half-century that was pragmatically constructed. He then proceeded to tenaciously defend his hard work, and by the time he was through with his spell, Sri Lanka had severely depleted resources to complete an arduous task. The upshot was that Pakistan left Hambantota with the series level at 1-1, and Afridi with his seventh Player-of-the-Match award, a Twenty20 record.

The second T20 played out in a manner remarkably similar to the first, two days ago, only with roles reversed. On Friday, Sri Lanka had chosen to bat and then collapsed, before a hard-hitting cameo lifted them. Today, it was Pakistan. On Friday, in pursuit of a modest total, Pakistan had been dismissed for less than 100. Today, it was

Sri Lanka.

Pakistan went onto draw the T20 Series by winning the second and final match at Hambantota by 23 runs. Once again the pitch made batting very difficult and the team chasing down a low target went onto lose it by some margin. This time it was the turn of Sri Lanka as they failed to chase down a moderate target of 123.

Yasir Arafat brought the visitors back in the game by taking two early wickets. Shahid Afridi then turned the game in Pak’s favour by cleaning up Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chamara Kapugedera as SL slipped to 62 for 4 by the 12th over.

Pakistan relentlessly kept on taking the wickets with Mohammad Sami joining into the act with some hostile fast bowling. Saeed Ajmal, Sohail Tanvir strangled the scoring in their spells and that left Sri Lanka lagging behind in the run chase. Towards the end, only Skipper Angelo Mathews was left to do some magic on his own which he failed as Sri Lanka were bundled out for 99 in 19.2 overs.

The top scorer for Sri Lanka was Kapugedera and all he could get was just 19! For Pakistan, Yasir Arafat and Mohammad Sami took three wickets each. Shahid Afridi, who scored an unbeaten 52 from 33 balls and came up with 2 for 17 in 4 overs got the Man of the Match award.

Its SRILanka’s batting Vs Pakistan’s bowling

Pakistan and Sri Lanka will resume their rivalry on Friday(TOday), with the first of the two T20s to be held at Hambantota. Pakistan have generally had the better of the two teams in the limited overs contest, but the Lankans are known to make best use of home conditions, and hence won’t be easy to overcome. An interesting series on the cards then.

Till recently, Pakistan's full tour of Sri Lanka for a series of two Twenty20s, five ODIs and three Tests existed only in the ICC's Future Tours Programme. The schedule was formally approved by the PCB a month ago and whatever build-up that existed was lost in the frenzy of the IPL. Despite its perfect positioning - the IPL is over, those from the two sides in question are free of other commitments and Sri Lanka is the venue for the World Twenty20 - the pre-series hype that usually accompanies a contest between two high-profile teams as Sri Lanka and Pakistan is missing. 

One reason could be the fact that the tour gets underway in far-flung Hambantota, the country's newest cricketing venue; at the cricket board office in Colombo, though, there is little or no activity at the ticket counter. 
 For Pakistan, international cricket's nomads, it's another series away from home. Deprived of IPL activity, the lead-up to this tour for them consisted of a two-week camp in Lahore under hot conditions sure to test them in Sri Lanka. Fans showed up in thousands to watch a series of practice games between the best limited-overs players in the country. Nothing can substitute international action at home, but this is the best their fans can get. 
Only a select number of Sri Lankan players, on the other hand, have had the benefit of rigorous Twenty20 match practice. Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Lasith Malinga have been particularly busy in the IPL, while the others have been keeping busy training at home. Dinesh Chandimal, who failed to get a game with Rajasthan Royals, was released midway to join a training camp at home. A few more weeks in the dugout could have been detrimental to the fledgling star's development. Fitness is paramount in June's punishing cricketing conditions and it's an area both teams will have to address.