11.02pm Sri Lanka have not had a good limited-overs tour, but this has been abject. This has been an absolute rout by any standards. Pakistan have proved again to be just too good for this Sri Lankan team, and have taken a 1-0 lead in the series without breaking a sweat in the desert humidity (I know it may be cooler in the night, but trying to make a point). Pakistan's bowlers set this up with their sixth consecutive stellar performance, leaving Sri Lanka with almost nothing to defend.
Thisara Perera had his chances to create pressure, but had just four fielders for much of that chase, which was, in my opinion, appalling captaincy. Pakistan were clinical with the bat, led by the experience of Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez, both of whom knew exactly what they were doing all along.
Usman Khan is the Man of the Match: "My rhythm is good. Lot of support from the support staff, they tell me to do what I know to do. My pace was good, I was confident today. Because there was pace, didn't need to use any variation. Our morale has been good since the Champions Trophy."
Thisara Perera: "If we look back, we need to take positives, we need to score runs to win a match. Our bowlers did pretty well, I'm 100% confident we can do something tomorrow. This is one of the best bowling sides I've seen, for the last 1.5 years."
Sarfraz Ahmed: "A zabardast (very good) effort from our team. In T20s, batsmen hit more, but we need to focus on the basics. If our basics are good, wickets will come. When we get a chance to play a youngster, we will. We have been working out that we need 40-45-48 runs in the Powerplay, our batsmen are capable."
Scores are level
One hit away, Pakistan need three to win.
END OF OVER:17 | 4 Runs | PAK: 100/3 (3 runs required from 18 balls, RR: 5.88, RRR: 1.00)
- Shoaib Malik42 (31b)
- Mohammad Hafeez22 (21b)
- Isuru Udana3-0-18-0
- Vikum Sanjaya4-0-20-2
Daniyal: "I would be willing to forgive Shehzad his slow starts but only if he didn't put pressure on the man coming in to bat. He had been the for over 6 overs and failed to take the initiative and Babar fell in trying to deal with the pressure created by not only Sri Lanka but Shehzad as well. "