Sri Lanka 141/7 (Atapattu 63, Sanjeewani 24*, Iqbal 4-16) Pakistan 140 for 4 (Muneeva 37, Feroza 25, Prabodhani 2-23, Dilhari 2-30) (3rd Wicket Away)
At that point, Sri Lanka needed to score 21 off 20 balls with five wickets remaining. They lost two more wickets but with three wickets needed off three balls, Sanjeewani and Achini Kulasuriya led the team to victory.
Muneeva and Feroza put in solid opening stand
Feroza, who reached his second consecutive fifty, started well in his third over by smashing seamer Achini Kulasuriya for three fours. After a quiet over from Sugandhika Kumari, Muneeva hit Athapattu for two fours before starting off with an elegant straight drive from Udesika Pravodani in the next over.
Prabodhani and Dilhari hit a double. Sana makes a cameo appearance.
Sri Lanka rallied in the middle innings, conceding just 56 runs between the seventh and 16th overs and picking up four wickets. Prabodhani, playing his 100th T20I, got opener Feroza out in the 10th over of the innings when the latter mis-hit a shot to deep midwicket. Five balls later, Prabodhani got Muneeva out when the batsman failed to sweep and moved too wide, exposing his stumps.
Nida Dar got out of trouble in the 14th over with a six and a four off Kulasliya, but Sidra Amin, struggling at the other end, mistimed a reverse sweep off Dilhari to short third in the next over. Four balls later, Dilhari had Dar caught lbw.
Desperate chase: Asapattu’s 50, Iqbal’s 4
Sri Lanka ended the powerplay at 35 for 2 with Vishmi Gunaratne and Harshita Samarawickrama losing early, but Athapatthu and Dilhari added 59 off 46 balls for the third wicket to stabilise the innings. Athapatthu, after a sedate start, picked up the pace and hit boundaries at a steady rate.
Needing 63 off 52 balls, Pakistan came back into the match with a ferocious surge thanks to Iqbal’s double-wicket over, taking Sri Lanka to 78 for 4. But Sanjeewani and Athapattu blunted Pakistan with a flurry of boundaries in the next few overs. Along the way, Athapattu also recorded his 11th half-century in T20Is. Pakistan were also sloppy in the field. Muneeva missed a stomp on Dilhari and failed to appeal when he stomp on Athapattu. This did not help Pakistan either.
Sri Lanka looked set to win easily but Pakistan fought back once again, with Iqbal’s efforts earning them a win in the final over to finish on 16 for four. In the next over, Hasini Perera was run out for an error. Nashra Sandhu was down to 13 in the penultimate over before Kumari hit two fours to reduce the lead to just three in six balls.
Dar came on to bowl in the final over himself and got Kumari out with his second ball, but it was not a win for Pakistan.
Srinidhi Ramanujam is Associate Editor at ESPNcricinfo.
