All round brilliance from Mohammad Hafeez gives Pakistan the lead in the ODI series.

Result : Pakistan won by 6 wickets (with 28 balls remaining) - Sri Lanka 255/8 (50.0 ov), Pakistan 259/4 (45.2 ov)

By PakPassion Staff (11th June, 2015)

Toss: Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl first

Team Pakistan: Azhar Ali, A Shehzad, M Hafeez, B Azam, S Malik, M Rizwan, S Ahmed (wk), Anwar Ali, Y Shah, R Ali, M Irfan

Team Sri Lanka: K Perera, T Dilshan, L Thirimanne, U Tharanga, D Chandimal (wk), A Mathews, M Siriwardene, T Perera, S Prasanna, S Lakmal, L Malinga

A different format , fairly younger and lesser experienced teams and a different challenge. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl first as they thought there is something for the bowlers in the pitch early on. Sri Lanka were off to a decent 44 run stand until Hafeez got rid of Perera, yet another left handed batsman caught in the slips. Thirimanne played well for his 23 until he was caught behind off Anwar Ali as Pakistan broke yet another promising stand.

Hafeez came back to pick Tharanga who never looked set and came down the track to get stumped. Hafeez got one to turn in the 26th over to clean bowl Dilshan for 38 and Pakistan were on top at 118-4. Chandimal and Mathews formed a good partnership of 82 runs at almost run a ball to take Sri Lanka past 200 until Yasir picked up the skipper Mathews in the deep. Mohammad Hafeez continued his brilliant bowling to pick another left hander Thisara Perera in slips, to finish with best ever figures of 4-41 in his 10 overs. Sri Lanka at this point were 6 down for 204.

Dinesh Chandimal continued to dominate despite running out of partners. Debutant Siriwardana made 22 and was caught brilliantly by Rizwan off Rahat's bowling. Rahat also dismissed Prasanna in the same over as Sri Lanka were 8 down for 245 and Pakistan pulled things back. Chandimal finished on 65* as Sri Lanka ended their innings on a competitive score of 255-8 from their 50 overs.

Pakistan started the chase positively with Azhar Ali and Ahmed Shehzad. They put a 47 run partnership when Azhar was caught behind of Mathews for 21. Ahmed Shehzad was also later caught behind for 29 off Thisara Perera. Babar Azam looked good for his 25 but was out LBW to Dilshan after a 58 run partnership with Hafeez. With Sri Lanka bowlers threatening to take the game away from Pakistan, Hafeez stepped up his game scoring with aggression and freedom as he went on to score a magnificent 103, only the second Pakistani after Shoaib Malik to get 4 wickets and a hundred in an ODI.

Malik then took over the anchor role to guide the chase to reach his 32nd ODI fifty (55*) with good support from Mohammad Rizwan who finished with 20*. Pakistan won by 6 wickets and 4.4 overs to spare and lead the 5 match series 1-0.

Fall of Wickets (Sri Lanka):

K Perera 1-44 (8.3 overs)
Thirimanne 2-83 (16.3 overs)
Tharanga 3-111 (23.4 overs)
Chandimal 4-118 (26.1 overs)
Mathews 5-200 (41.5 overs)
Thisara 6-204 (42.6 overs)
Siriwardana 7-244 (48.2 overs)
Prasanna 8-245 (48.4 overs)

Fall of Wickets (Pakistan):

Azhar 1-47 (9.2 overs)
Shehzad 2-65 (14.1 overs)
Babar 3-123 (25.2 overs)
Hafeez 4-198 (35.5 overs)

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