Dambulla, August 01: Sri Lanka made best use of winning the toss, making significant inroads on a blustery and overcast morning in Dambulla. Once again, the pace bowlers were to the fore, and it was left to Younis Khan to try and guide his team to a respectable total. Halfway through the innings, Pakistan had limped to 77 for 5, with Muttiah Muralitharan only just having come into the bowling equation.
Pakistan had made two changes from the side that lost by 36 runs two days earlier, but they started disastrously. Nasir Jamshed, who had come in along with Umar Akmal at the expense of Mohammad Yousuf and Misbah-ul-Haq, sparred at a Nuwan Kulasekara delivery that was moving away from him, and Mahela Jayawardene took a smart catch over his head at second slip.
Kamran Akmal eased a couple of lovely drives in front of the wicket, but any thought of consolidation disappeared as two wickets fell with the score on 21. First, Akmal edged one that slanted across him for Thilan Samaraweera to take an excellent tumbling catch at first slip, and then Shoaib Malik was unfortunate to be given out leg-before after being struck high on the pad. Two wickets for Thilan Thushara, and Sri Lanka right on top.
On a green-tinged pitch where the ball darted around, Younis was in all sorts of strife against Lasith Malinga and it was left to Umar to highlight his potential with a couple of fluent drives on either side of the wicket. But soon after drinks, Sri Lanka struck again, with Umar flailing at a wide one from Angelo Mathews. Kumar Sangakkara held on to that chance, and when Thushara came back for a sixth over and had Fawad Alam top-edging a cut behind, Pakistan were once again facing acute batting embarrassment.
Sri Lanka: 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt/wk), 4 Mahela jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Chamara Kapugedera, 7 Angelo Mathews, 8 Thilan Thushara, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.
Pakistan: 1 Nasir Jamshed, 2 Kamran Akmal (wk), 3 Younis Khan 4 Shoaib Malik, 5 Umar Akmal, 6 Shahid Afridi, 7 Fawad Alam, 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Mohammad Aamer, 11 Saeed Ajmal
—-Agencies