Pak tour of SL : A consolidation victory for Sri Lanka in the fifth ODI

Tags: Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka, 2015, Sri Lanka Vs Pakistan - 5th ODI at Hambantota, Jul 26, 2015, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mathurage Don Kushal Janitha Perera, Tillakaratne Mudiyanselage Dilshan, Angelo Davis Mathews, Tisse Appuhamilage Milinda Siriwardana, Senanayake Mudiyanselage Sachithra Madhushanka Senanayake, Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali

Published on: Jul 27, 2015

Scorecard | Commentary | Graphs

Sri Lanka thrashed Pakistan in the fifth game of the five match ODI series at Hambantota to restore some faith back. Batting first, with the help of blitzing hundred from Kusal Prera, Sri Lanka posted a mammoth total of 368 runs in 50 overs.

Sri Lanka thrashed Pakistan in the fifth game of the five match ODI series at Hambantota to restore some faith back. Batting first, with the help of blitzing hundred from Kusal Prera, Sri Lanka posted a mammoth total of 368 runs in 50 overs. In reply, Pakistan were bowled out for 203 runs inside 38 overs to hand the hosts an easy win of 165 runs. Despite this win, Sri Lanka have lost the series.

It was one of the most mature innings of Kusal Prera who generally throws his wicket away after getting good start. The opening partnership between Kusal and Dilshan added 164-run of which latter scored 62-run off 70-balls. Angelo Mathews and Milinda Siriwardana capitalized on the start the openers given them and amassed 107 runs in the last 8 overs. Kusal allowed defensive technique to take over his aggressive on in the early overs when he tried to defend the good deliveries. But he was quick on his feet to put the ball away when bowlers missed their line and length. When he settled a bit, he found few boundaries on good deliveries too. One of the high note of this inning was he didn’t relied more on boundaries in this inning but he was keep to quick singles too. Dilshan completed his half-century off 59-balls and later he became the 11th batsmen in ODI cricket history to cross 10,000 runs. Dilshan was run out attempting a quick single, but Kusal remained on the crease to complete his second ODI ton. In the 33rd over of the inning, Kusal was run out in completing a second run. He had hit 116 off 109 deliveries that set Sri Lanka on course of a big total. Mathews and Siriwardana reached their fifty of 31 and 25 balls respectively.

For Pakistan, Rahat Ali was the only bowler to claim wicket and none of them expect Shoaib Malik had an economy of less than 7 runs. Yasir Shah was off-color as he conceded 73 runs off eight overs only.

Pakistan started of little coldly, only 46 runs in the first nine overs. Sachitra Senanayake struck Ahmed Shehzad to give the first breakthrough. Even though, Mohammad Hafeez was hitting boundaries at will but Pakistan never looked like chasing the target. Azhar Ali and Sarfraz Ahmed was run out by direct hit and Hafeez was trapped lbw by Mathews. Thisara Perera took Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Rizwan. Senanayake took the wickets off tails and finished with a figure of 3 for 39 runs off eight overs.

Man of the Match: Kusal Perera

Man of the Series: Mohammad Hafeez

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