Sri Lanka 133-8 (Kamindu 50, Shaheen 3-28) v Pakistan
Shoot for the stars, land on the moon – that was the hope, anyway. In reality Sri Lanka barely lifted off, chugging to 133 for 8 after being put in on what looked a tidy batting surface at the Zayed Stadium. Shaheen Shah Afridi knocked over both openers inside the powerplay and finished with 3 for 28, setting the tone for a Pakistan attack that rarely relaxed the squeeze.
Kamindu Mendis’ 50 from 44 balls was more rescue mission than statement. When he walked in the score read 34 for 3; by the eighth over it was 58 for 5 and teetering. A stand of 22 with Wanindu Hasaranga and another worth 43 with Chamika Karunaratne dragged the innings from the cliff edge to something closer to par – though still a long way shy of the 180 Sri Lanka had pencilled in at breakfast.
The shot that eventually undid Kamindu summed up Pakistan’s discipline: a toe-crushing yorker from Afridi, upheld on review after the umpire’s initial not-out call. “I just tried to hit the base of the stumps,” Afridi told the host broadcaster, sounding almost apologetic. Mission accomplished.
Sri Lanka’s bright start – 53 in the powerplay – came at a cost. Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera and Sadeera Samarawickrama all departed while trying to clear the in-field, leaving the middle order exposed. Hussain Talat compounded matters by removing Charith Asalanka and Dasun Shanaka with successive balls; the left-arm spinner Abrar Ahmed then slipped through four overs for only eight, turning the screws so tightly that the run-rate vanished beneath five an over from six through sixteen.
Only 36 arrived at the death, partly down to tight lines from Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah, partly because Sri Lanka’s lower order spent too long in survival mode. “We needed one player to bat deep and one to go hard; we got half of that,” captain Shanaka admitted afterwards.
Pakistan will fancy chasing this. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, must hope for early wickets of their own – and that the moon, somehow, drifts a bit closer.
