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Change Your Life! |
Sri Lanka and Pakistan play 'Clean cricket' |
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News |
July 6, 2000
Galle (AP) After rain early in the day today the umpires reduced the match to a 45-overs-a-side affair. The rival vice-captains Inzamam-ul-Haq and Marvan Atapattu held centrestage with their sound batting against some crafty bowling.
It would have been hard for anyone not to appreciate the heart-warming displays by battle-hardened pros like Atapattu, Inzamam and Waqar Younis as well as by rookies like seamer Nuwan Zoysa and batsman-wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara, both beckoned by a bright future in the Sri Lankan team.
Pakistan rode on lion-hearted show by Inzamam and Waqar to undo some of the damage inflicted by left-arm seamer Zoysa and make a match of it in the first place. Their 69-run eighth-wicket stand ensured that Pakistan would have a score at least looking defensible. Atapattu replied solidly as he anchored Sri Lanka's run chase after Waqar threatened to dominate with the ball.
An asking rate of 3.67 runs an over would not seem much but Sri Lanka's batting, barring Sanath Jayasuriya and Atapattu, does not boast of too much experience. Waqar's five-over spell with the new ball then breathed more life into Pakistan's campaign. Despite his seeing the backs of the openers, Sri Lanka coasted home as Atapattu carried on from where he left at Kandy last week.
Mahela Jayawardena's poor run of form in one-day internationals - he had scored 222 runs in the last 18 games - meant that debutant Sangakkara walked in to face pressure. But with Waqar Younis alone looking like a wicket-taking bowler, the 20-year-old was able to weather the storm until he was run out when Atapattu called him for a suicidal single.
Not long after, Atapattu, who extended his streak of successive scores of 50-plus in one-dayers against Pakistan to six games, was trapped leg before by Abdur Razzaq. Yet, it was obvious that Pakistan's younger seamers like Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood and Mohammed Akram missed Wasim Akram's counsel. But they will have to get used to his absence sooner than later.
It was a pity then that Inzamam had to end up on the losing side today. Clearly, he has responded to the burden of vice-captaincy admirably, even if he has had to cut some of the flamboyance from his own batsmanship. He edged a ball from Nuwan Zoysa painfully on to his box and retired for attention but returned at the fall of the fifth wicket to rescue Pakistan from doldrums.
If Pakistan recovered from 53 for six in in the 17th over and 84 for seven in the 28th to post 164 for eight, it was entirely due to the single-minded resolve of Inzamam and Waqar's cavalier spirit.
After the young opener Imran Nazir was run out by a direct hit from short mid-wicket by Mahela Jayawardena off the first ball and Shahid Afridi skyed Chaminda Vaas to mid-off, Zoysa prised out Yousuf Youhana, Abdur Razzaq and Saeed Anwar besides sending Inzamam-ul-Haq to the dressing room.
Zoysa, the burly and bristling 22-year-old left-arm seamer who is among the youngsters receiving special attention from Sri Lanka's long-standing trainer Alex Kontouri, made the most of the dual bounce in the wicket and its twin-pace to have Pakistan reeling at 43 for five in the 14th over. The Lankans' decision to nurse Zoysa is something that Indians must emulate.
Truth to tell, Zoysa was fortunate that Youhana was ruled out caught at the wicket when he sought to play the glide to a short ball that was pitched outside the off-stump and bounced more than he expected. The seamer was also lucky to have been awarded Razzaq's scalp, winning a leg before wicket verdict off a ball that pitched outside the leg stump.
Saeed Anwar was surprised by one that bounced more and stopped a bit as well. He had squared up so much that the ball lobbed back to Zoysa off the splice of the bat. Skipper Moin Khan's departure to a good catch at backward square leg made Pakistan stare down a black hole at 53 for six. An early finish looked imminent at this stage.
Azhar Mahmood's tenure at the wicket may not have been most productive but he stayed long enough for it to become clear that the pitch was fast losing its juice and rolling out to be a firm track. Waqar, whose reverse-pull off Kumara Dharmasena would have boosted Inzamam's confidence, played his role in the valuable stand.
Jayasuriya's handling of his attack helped Pakistan's cause but it must be said that he paid a small price for not leaving himself with seam-bowling options when Waqar walked in to bat with nearly 18 overs left. As many as half of those had to be shared by Jayasuriya and off-spinner Dharmasena, bowling on the big stage after 18 months when he had to change his bowling action.
Waqar then returned to bowl a superb spell with the new ball, landing his out-swingers on target and causing the home batsmen much discomfort. He trapped Avishka Gunawardena, fresh from a blazing half-century for the Board President's XI against the South Africans yesterday, in his first over and then had Jayasuriya gliding a simple catch.
But on a day of the vice-captains, with Atapattu pipping Inzamam to finish on the winning side, cricket - and its immediate future - could not have been any cleaner.
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