Pakistan 277/7 (50 ov)
Sri Lanka 266/9 (50.0 ov)
Group A Fixture
Man of the match: Shahid Afridi
Both captain Shahid Afridi and vice captain Misbah ul Haq went on to inspire their team with a 11 runs defeat against Sri Lanka with their exceptional display of cricket. Afridi , who got onto continue with his sublime form produced sensational figures of 4-34. Misbah (82*) who along with Younus Khan(73) propelled the mid-order batting with a stand of 108 run partnership remained pivotal. Afridi in his 314 ODI match went onto become only the 2nd player after Jayasuriya to have attained over 6000 runs and 300 ODI wickets.
Batting first, Pakistan remained solid as ever, propelling pretty fast in the first power play (65/1), just went onto lose Shahzad. After Hafeez and Akmal playing superbly , went onto a horrendous mix up as Hafeez ran himself out. After removal of Akmal both both Younus Khan and Misbah played some technically sound cricket, nudging singles and occasional boundaries to keep the scorecard ticking. After the 40th over Sri Lanka slowing things pretty down as Murali in the power play in his last 2 overs conceded just 6 runs and took wicket of Umar Akmal. Finally went onto wrap up at 277/7 with Misbah playing masterfully remained unbeaten at 82.
Sri Lanka starting of pretty cautiously , as their run rate remained below par most of the innings but kept their wickets intact will 15th over. But with the Boom Boom and his spinner company, things were getting totally different as Tharanga who got who caught off the bowling of Hafeez . Afridi also bowled off Dilshan. With two players onto the crease Afridi played his trump card bringing Akhtar back which ultimately payed back with the wicket of Jayawardena. Later Sri Lanka made some recovery with the partnership of Sangakkara and Chamara Silva but Afridi always went onto take wickets on cruical junctures. Only thing not going in Pakistan's favours was two missed stumpings and two catches dropped which marred the overall fielding performance which remained pretty perfect throughout. With Silva and Kapugedra's partnership things were looking pretty dangerous for Pakistan but the required run rate always kept on increasing. But Pakistan managed to sneak in with a 11 run victory.
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