Teenager Umar Akmal smashed an unbeaten 102 off 72 balls as Pakistan won the fourth one-day international by 146 runs on Friday to record their first win on a dismal tour of Sri Lanka.
Umar’s maiden international century and a dogged 89 from skipper Younus Khan lifted Pakistan to 321-5 after the tourists elected to bat in the day-night match at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
Seamer Rao Iftikhar then grabbed five for 30 as Sri Lanka were shot out for 175 in 36.1 overs, handing Pakistan a badly-needed win after they were beaten 2-0 in the Test series and lost the first three one-day matches.
PHOTO: AFP
The fifth and final match will be played at the same venue today.
Umar, 19, younger brother of the team’s wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, pounded four sixes and five fours in only his third international and was declared the man of the match.
Younus stayed rock-solid at the other end as Umar punished the wayward Sri Lankan attack during a fifth-wicket partnership of 176 runs after Pakistan slipped to 130-4.
PHOTO: AFP
Sri Lanka appeared to make light of the daunting target when they moved to 101-1 in the 16th over, before losing their last nine wickets for 74 runs.
Left-handed opener Upul Tharanga top-scored with 80 off 89 balls and skipper Kumar Sangakkara made 39, but none of the other top order batsmen delivered.
Spinners Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal supported Iftikhar with two wickets each.
PHOTO: AFP
“It’s a relief to finally win,” Younus said at the presentation ceremony. “We are normally slow starters, but we have been too slow on this tour. Hats off to Umar and Iftikhar. They really made us proud today.”
Sangakkara said a target of 321 could not be chased without big partnerships, which Sri Lanka did not have.
“I don’t think complacency was the problem,” Sangakkara said. “The problem was we gave them 320. We have got to make sure we bowl a lot better to our fields. Umar finished things off very well for Pakistan, but we need to keep our chins up and come back strongly in the next match.”
Earlier, Pakistan made a sound start as Imran Nazir, playing for the first time in the series, hit 23 in a first-wicket stand of 61 with Kamran Akmal by the 10th over.
Kamran then put on 45 for the second wicket with Younus to lift Pakistan to 106-1, before another middle-order collapse saw three wickets fall for 24 runs.
Leg-spinner Malinga Bandara, himself making his first appearance in the series, bowled Kamran and trapped Misbah-ul-Haq leg before wicket to finish with two for 44 in 10 overs.
Lasith Malinga went for 79 runs in his 10 wicketless overs, while fellow pace man Thilan Thushara took two wickets for 74 runs.
Sri Lanka rested three front-line bowlers, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nuwan Kulasekara and Dilhara Fernando, and replaced them with Ajantha Mendis, Bandara and Malinga.
Pakistan were forced to leave out the injured duo of Umar Gul and Abdul Razzaq, and also dropped Nasir Jamshed and Fawad Alam.
They were replaced by Nazir, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah and Iftikhar.
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
CUNNINGHAM CONNECTS: In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons snapped their record 15-game playoff losing streak by beating the Knicks to level their series at 1-1 Kawhi Leonard on Monday scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers evened their first-round NBA Playoffs series against the Nuggets with a 105-102 win in Denver. “It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” James Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.” Good thing, too, because his teammates were a combined 26 of 66 for a 39 percent clip. “I made shots tonight,” Leonard said. “I just keep playing, try to stay in the zone no matter if I’m making or missing shots.” The fifth-seeded Clippers needed every bit of his brilliance to snatch the homecourt advantage in the series
RSS