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Pakistan bowlers deliver again as hosts cruise to seven-wicket win against Sri Lanka in first T20I

Abdullah719

T20I Captain
Joined
Apr 16, 2013
Runs
44,825
Medium pacer Hasan Ali finished with a career-best bowling to once again anchor Pakistan's convincing seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the first Twenty20 in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

Hasan, who took 14 wickets in Pakistan's preceding 5-0 whitewash of the one-day series, took 3-23 in 3.3 overs as Pakistan skittled Sri Lanka out for a paltry 102 in 18.3 overs.

Only Seekkuge Prasanna (23 not out) and debutant Sadeera Samarawickrama (23) put some resistance against a varied Pakistan bowling attack.

Pakistan did lose Fakhar Zaman (six), Babar Azam (one) and Ahmed Shehzad (22) but were seen through to the target by Shoaib Malik 42 not out and Mohammad Hafeez 25 not out with 16 balls to spare.

That gave Pakistan a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Malik hit four boundaries in his 31-ball knock while Hafeez's 23-ball innings had three hits to the ropes as the pair added 39 for the unbroken fourth wicket stand.

It was again Pakistan's bowling which led them to victory.

Sri Lanka lost wickets at regular intervals after looking to build the innings at 51-2 in the ninth over. But they lost their last eight wickets for another 51 runs and were bowled out for their second lowest Twenty20 total against Pakistan.

All six Pakistan bowlers took wickets with spinner Mohammad Hafeez (2-10) and pacer Usman Shinwari (2-24) supplementing Hasan to the best effect.

Sent into bat, Sri Lanka lost Dilshan Munaweera for nought off the third ball of the first over while Dashun Gunathilaka made 11-ball 18 with three boundaries.

Samarawickrama and Ashan Priyanjan (12) had added 22 for the third wicket but wicket started to fall in cluster and Sri Lanka could never recover.

Just like in one-day series, Hasan was at his best in taking wickets, removing Sachith Pathirana (four), Isuru Udana (nought) and Vikum Sanjaya (four) to improve on his previous best of 3-49 against the West Indies in Dubai last year.

Skipper Thisara Perera made six. It was left to Prasanna to hit two sixes in his run-a-ball 23 to get past 100-mark.

The second match is also in Abu Dhabi on Friday before the teams fly to Lahore for the last match on Sunday.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1366424/hasan-stars-as-pakistan-upstage-sri-lanka-in-first-t20
 
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Honestly a grim game, Sri Lanka's batting was awful whilst we stuttered a bit on a typically low bounce, slow Abu Dhabi pitch. Only Malik and Hafeez seemed to bat with any fluency.
 
I may not be able to sleep thinking we 'll play SL again tomorrow :stokes
 
Honestly a grim game, Sri Lanka's batting was awful whilst we stuttered a bit on a typically low bounce, slow Abu Dhabi pitch. Only Malik and Hafeez seemed to bat with any fluency.

This is true, but disappointed how we didn't let some of our other batsmen who don't get a chance to bat i.e. Fahim and Imad a chance to bat. We could have always hid Malik and Hafeez down the order in case they were needed. But think we were too scared of losing with that bad start.

Malik did look really good at the crease again, which is reassuring.
 
These T20s are a joke, Sri Lankan cricket board ruined it by having the same Dubai squads for Lahore, nothing but one sided matches.

And what's even worse is that these guys don't promote fahim or try out other rookies like Yamin in these t20s to give them confidence against this horrid oppoisition.

Fahim only got 2 overs to bowl and people like Hafeez and Malik promoted above him, let that sink in.

Nothing but stat boosting series, t20s are to try youngsters, play full strength squads during world t20s
 
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These T20s are a joke, Sri Lankan cricket board ruined it by having the same Dubai squads for Lahore, nothing but one sided matches.

And what's even worse is that these guys don't promote fahim or try out other rookies like Yamin in these t20s to give them confidence against this horrid oppoisition.

Fahim only got 2 overs to bowl and people like Hafeez and Malik promoted above him, let that sink in.

Nothing but stat boosting series, t20s are to try youngsters, play full strength squads during world t20s

Never understands why we dont give chances to youngsters in these t20s. I mean comon now they 'll not learn until they fail
 
Never understands why we dont give chances to youngsters in these t20s. I mean comon now they 'll not learn until they fail

Result of living in a seniority based culture, but with youngsters like Hasan, Shadab and Babar consistently performing it is a matter of time when the tables turn on the Hafeez, Kamrans, Tanvirs
 
Another match tomorrow, mouth-watering stuff.

It would have been a bit more interesting had they tried out new youngsters and batting combination. The situation is so bad you can't even hope for it happen in the next match either.
 
It was such a rubbish match but Pakistani bowlers shine through. Awesome bowling by Hasan Ali, Shadab, Usman Shinwari & Fahim Ashraf.

Selfie Shehzad remained the thorn in Pakistan side again. Yamin should be given a chance. Amir should be phased out of T20s and should be asked to concentrate on fitness, odi & test cricket. With Ruumman and Amir issues, there needs to be rotation policy to manage resources.

Amazing captain Sarfraz
 
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What really is the point of hafeez and malik batting in such games. Very poor from the mangmnt. I mean let some younger player bat.
 
What really is the point of hafeez and malik batting in such games. Very poor from the mangmnt. I mean let some younger player bat.

So that they can brag about their performance in these matches and justify their selection.
 
I just hope that these strings of victories against SL doesn’t give us false sense of superiority ...... because some real sterner Tests still awaits us !!!!!!
 
Honestly a grim game, Sri Lanka's batting was awful whilst we stuttered a bit on a typically low bounce, slow Abu Dhabi pitch. Only Malik and Hafeez seemed to bat with any fluency.

If we needed to give our batsmen a go, we should have batted first and tried to get a big score. but We sent Srilanka in, knowing that they would collapse. Shoaib Malik was sent at the perfect time when spinners were on & runs were not coming easily. But we could have sent Fahim in place of the Professor :hafeez2 to get a chance to perform.
 
These T20s are a joke, Sri Lankan cricket board ruined it by having the same Dubai squads for Lahore, nothing but one sided matches.

And what's even worse is that these guys don't promote fahim or try out other rookies like Yamin in these t20s to give them confidence against this horrid oppoisition.

Fahim only got 2 overs to bowl and people like Hafeez and Malik promoted above him, let that sink in.

Nothing but stat boosting series, t20s are to try youngsters, play full strength squads during world t20s

True, they should have had the exact same squad that lost 5-0 in the ODIs that would have made the games much more competitive.
 
In the last ODI when there were only about 11runs to win they sent Faheem up the order but in this match they didn't. Which makes me wonder if they sent Faheem early only because the senior players could not be bothered with 11 runs to win and not because they wanted to give him see his batting.
 
In the last ODI when there were only about 11runs to win they sent Faheem up the order but in this match they didn't. Which makes me wonder if they sent Faheem early only because the senior players could not be bothered with 11 runs to win and not because they wanted to give him see his batting.

Fahim was sent so that Babar's race to 2000 can be protected and he gets a full four innings to get to that milestone.
 
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