Abdul Razzaq's brilliant all-round performance powered Pakistan to a four-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the ICC Champions Trophy Group B cricket match on Tuesday, a day after Pakistan lost key pacemen Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif amid a doping scandal.
Razzaq took four wickets for 50 runs to bowl out Sri Lanka for 253 in 49.2 overs and then smashed unbeaten 38 off 24 balls as Pakistan replied strongly with 255 for six in 48.1 overs.
Razzaq led Pakistan to victory with one of his two sixes and also hit two boundaries. He dominated the unbroken partnership of 54 off 36 balls with Shoaib Malik, who also played a composed unbeaten knock of 46 off 59 balls.
Pakistan was nicely placed at 161 for four in the 35th over before Mohammad Yousuf's (49) was run out, and then Kamran Akmal (20) was brilliantly caught by Farveez Maharoof in the deep, with Pakistan still 53 runs short of the target.
Opening batsman Imran Farhat (53 off 64 balls) paced his innings well against Sri Lanka's new ball bowlers despite getting a life on 25 when he was dropped by captain Mahela Jayawardene in the slip.
Farhat, who hit eight fours in his 64-ball innings, gave Pakistan a strong start to its run chase before he holed out in the deep of Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling.
Captain Younis Khan (7) and Shahid Afridi (1) also went cheaply but Razzaq's late assault took the game away from Sri Lanka.
Earlier, Sri Lanka's top order batsman made good starts, but none registered half centuries after Jayawardene won the toss and elected to bat.
In the absence of new ball bowlers Akhtar and Asif, Rao Iftikhar and Rana Naved were plundered by Sanath Jayasuriya, who scored 48 off 35 balls including five boundaries and two sixes.
Pakistan sorely missed the two suspended bowlers as Jayasuriya took 17 runs off Naved's fourth over and 11 more in the next over of Iftikhar.
Jayasuriya threw away his wicket, bowled by Iftikhar, and Kumar Sangakkara (39), Upul Tharanga (38), Marvan Atapattu (36) and Jaywardene (31) all made useful contributions _ but none could go on to make a big score.
Jayawardene _ playing in his 225th limited-overs game _ became the fifth Sri Lankan batsman to score 6,000 runs after Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva, Atapattu and Arjuna Ranatunga.
Tharanga, who had hit successive centuries in Sri Lanka's qualifying games against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, hit Razzaq for two boundaries before he edged the next delivery to wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal. Razzaq also knocked over the stumps of Maharoof (22), Chaminda Vaas (15) and Lasith Malinga.
Sri Lankan batsmen lost their wickets with regular intervals without putting a strong partnership. Jayawardene top-edged a sweep to Farhat while Sangakkara failed to clear the boundary and was caught by a diving Iftikhar at long off.
Atapattu was smartly run out by Farhat as Sri Lanka could score only 40 runs in the last 10 overs and lost four wickets _ three to Razzaq's seam bowling.
Allrounder Yasir Arafat and left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman were confirmed as replacements for Akhtar and Asif, and are expected to join the team in Mohali, where Pakistan plays New Zealand on Oct. 25 and South Africa on Oct. 27.
Sri Lanka next plays New Zealand at Mumbai on Oct. 20.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
