Young sensation Maaz Sadaqat and new captain Sahibzada Farhan repeated their fine showings from the series opener, as Pakistan took a 2-0 lead with a thumping 82-run win over Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi.
Having taken the odd call of batting first in the first game, Sri Lanka set themselves to chase in their quest to level the series. They brought in three changes, keeping out their frontline seamer Dushmantha Chameera. But sloppy catching, erratic bowling and an inconsistent batting approach meant they were never really in the game.
On a flat track with the odd variable bounce, Pakistan raced to 24/0 in three overs, with Farhan and Fakhar Zaman breaking free quickly. Sri Lanka had an early chance when Farhan top-edged a slower one, only for short third-man to spill it. Zaman’s attempt to score quickly after the Powerplay led to his fall, giving Maheesh Theekshana his first scalp.
But Farhan did not let the off-spinner settle: next over, he hit consecutive 90+ metre sixes off him. The timing didn’t immediately come for Sadaqat. By the time the skipper reached his fifty off 31 balls, Sadaqat had found his tempo, hitting Malinga for a sensational six over deep point. The duo kept taking their chances, not letting any of their frontline bowlers settle on a length. It did not help that Sri Lanka dropped at least three catches.
The 21-year-old then went after Theekshana’s assortment of slot balls. He muscled three sixes off his four balls in the 16th over, leaving him with the most expensive figures of his T20I career. By that time, Farhan had fallen after hitting Dasun Shanaka for four and six. Sadaqat kept the charge on, racing from 51 off 30 to 76 off 40.
Even slower ones weren’t spared, as Sadaqat kept finding boundaries – six fours and seven sixes overall– until the start of the last over. Malinga nicely mixed up his slower ones with yorkers, claiming Sadaqat off the last ball, and four short of his century.
Sri Lanka’s chase never really got going. Lahiru Udara, who scored 91 in the first game, fell to a sharp Salman Mirza bouncer, giving Pakistan the early advantage. Sineth Jayawardena, called in for this game, took his chances with three fours in a row off Mirza, one of which was an inside edge that could have hit the stumps. With the ball sitting up nicely under lights, Sri Lanka needed a rapid Powerplay.
But with Kusal Mendis taking his time at the other end, Jayawardena fell trying to clear the field off the last ball of the Powerplay. At 35/2 after six overs, they were pushed to the backfoot.
Mohammad Imran then hit the right lengths without losing his radar, using his natural angle to keep pinging right-handers into their body. He took two-in-two after mixing up his pace, as Sri Lanka failed to find big overs to break out of their stupor. He finished with 3 for 11 from his four, having strangled the tourists in the middle overs.
Chasing a rapidly rising required rate, Sri Lanka found a belated partnership in No.7 and 8 Chamindu Wickramasinghe and Theekshana, but the 50-run stand only delayed the inevitable. The difference in firepower between the two lineups was quite clear: Sadaqat and Farhan shared 12 sixes between them; Sri Lanka hit three in all.
Brief scores: Pakistan 215/3 in 20 overs (Maaz Sadaqat 96, Sahibzada Farhan 73; Dasun Shanaka 1-30, Eshan Malinga 1-41) beat Sri Lanka 133/7 in 20 overs (Maheesh Theekshana 32, Chamindu Wickramasinghe 29; Mohammad Imran 3-11, Salman Mirza 2-28) by 82 runs
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