COLOMBO: Sri Lanka have set handsome target of 173 runs against Pakistan in the second and final Twenty20 (T20) match being played at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
Host Sri Lanka had won the toss and elected to bat first against Green Shirts in the final play of two-match T20 series on the home grounds.
Sri Lanka faced early collapse of opening wickets in shape of Tillakaratne Dilshan 10 at the score of 24 and then Kusal Perera scored 19. However, the team lifted by debutant Shehan Jayasuriya who brilliantly scored 40 runs on 32 balls.
Middle order Chamara Kapugedera was highest scorer with not out 48 runs with two Fours and four cracking sixes that thwarted all efforts of Pakistani bowlers to down the run rate.
Milinda Siriwardana was the third top scorer with 23 runs after debutant Jayasuriya while other batsmen failed to contribute reasonable score to their team.
Toss:
Host Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first against Green Shirts in the second and final Twenty20 (T20) match being played at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
Pakistan to enter in the ground without making any change as Sarfraz Ahmed once again kept out of the team despite outstanding performance in the One Day International (ODI) format play.
Pakistani skipper Shahid Afridi said that the team would do maximum effort to win the decisive match to gain third position on the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 ranking table.
He said that Green Shirts would continue winning combination in the match. He revealed that Pakistan has some plan that were being implemented before the upcoming World Cup.
Two Sri Lankan players including Shehan Jayasuriya and Dasun Shanaka are making their international debuts by replacing Mathews and Kithuruwan Vithanage that leads Malinga-eleven to contain six players with two T20I caps or fewer.
Sri Lanka Squad
Kusal Perera†, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Shehan Jayasuriya, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka, Milinda Siriwardana, Chamara Kapugedera, Thisara Perera, Binura Fernando, Jeffrey Vandersay, Lasith Malinga*
Pakistan Squad
Mukhtar Ahmed, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi*, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Rizwan†, Imad Wasim, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Irfan
