Shahid Afridi’s superb all-round performance helped Pakistan post an easy 23-run victory over Sri Lanka in the second and final Twenty20 international and level the series 1-1.
Sri Lanka were shot out for 99 as they collapsed, their lowest T20 total against Pakistan, after restricting the tourists to 122-6 in Hambantota.
Man-of-the-match Afridi was the star in a low-scoring match, hammering a 33-ball 52 not out and then grabbing two wickets for 17 runs in his four disciplined overs.
Photo: AFP
Afridi, who becomes the first player to appear in 50 T20 internationals, hit one six and five fours in his fourth half-century.
“It was a great team effort and everybody played his role. The partnership between Shoaib Malik and Afridi was crucial for us,” Pakistan skipper Mohammad Hafeez said.
Pacemen Mohammad Sami and Yasir Arafat also impressed as they took three wickets apiece to keep pressure on Sri Lanka, who rested skipper Mahela Jayawardene and fast bowler Lasith Malinga.
Middle-order batsman Chamara Kapugedera top-scored with 19 in a dismal Sri Lanka batting display.
Sri Lanka, who won the opening match by 37 runs on Friday, were 76-4 at one stage before losing their last six wickets for 23 runs.
“We were brilliant in the field, but then lost our way in the middle,” stand-in Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said.
Pakistan were earlier struggling at 41-4 before Afridi steadied the innings with a 68-run stand for the fifth wicket with Malik, who hit three successive fours off leg-spinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi in his 26-ball 27.
Lokuarachchi bagged two of the first four wickets as Pakistan struggled, removing Hafeez (24) and Umar Akmal (five) in his four-over spell.
Paceman Nuwan Kulasekera was the most impressive bowler, finishing with 2-13 off four tight overs.
Sri Lanka brought in Isuru Udana and Kapugedera in place of Jayawardene and Malinga. Pakistan made one change, replacing Umar Gul with Arafat.
Sri Lanka and Pakistan will now play a five-match one-day series, starting in Pallekele on Thursday.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier