Pakistan 215 for 4 (Rizwan 61*, Zaman 55, Vandersay 3-42) beat Sri Lanka 211 (Samarawickrama 48, Kusal Mendis 34, Wasim 3-47) by six wickets
Pakistan eased to a six-wicket win over Sri Lanka to seal a 3-0 series whitewash. Three wickets from Mohammad Wasim and contributions from others bowled Sri Lanka out for 211, before a half-century by Fakhar Zaman took much of the jeopardy out of the chase. Sri Lanka fought hard through the middle, getting rid of Babar Azam and Salman Agha in quick succession, and though it succeeded in slowing Pakistan down, the visitors ultimately had too few runs to play with as Pakistan cantered to the win with 5.2 overs to spare.
When Sri Lanka began their innings, they appeared to have designs on a total above 300. Pathum Nissanka and Kamil Mishara were timing the ball particularly sweetly, racing along to a 50-run partnership inside the first eight overs. Shaheen Shah Afridi, in particular, was punished early by Mishara, who exploited the gaps as an opposition side racked up a 50-run opening partnership against Pakistan for the sixth ODI in succession.
But as has been so often the case for the visitors, wickets derailed their progress significantly. Mishara had chopped a few early on and survived, but Nissanka’s first inside edge clattered into the stumps, and from there Pakistan started to squeeze. Wasim found a bit of extra bounce to draw Mishara’s outside edge, and the free-flowing runs were suddenly no longer coming.
Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama rebuilt, but not nearly at the speed Sri Lanka needed on a wicket that looked like it would only continue to get better. Left-arm wristspinner Faisal Akram, replacing Abrar Ahmed in the side, enjoyed an excellent first spell, deploying his variations to great effect and keeping the batters honest. He had Samarawickrama trapped in front in single digits, but the batter got the decision reversed on review because the ball was turning too much.
Kusal Mendis scored 34•Getty Images
But the pressure was invariably building up. It had taken 75 balls to score just 43 runs, and by the time Wasim returned to the attack, the urgency to score quickly had been amplified. He knocked them off course with a yorker that cleaned up the stand-in captain Kusal Mendis before a double blow from Akram blew the innings wide open. It included a splendid delivery that sliced through Samarawickrama’s defences two runs shy of a half-century, as well as a soft return catch that did for Kamindu Mendis.
Sri Lanka have set much store in 23-year-old batting talent Pavan Rathnayake, even if he was batting a tad too deep for their liking. The debutant showed impressive temperament as he shepherded the tail, and arguably played the shot of the day with a back-foot punch that flew over cover for a six. But he got limited support from the tail as Pakistan chipped away at the other end, and with nine wickets down, his desperation to get back on strike cost him his wicket. He had put up a spirited 32, but the 211 Sri Lanka ended up with never looked near enough.
Zaman drove that point further home as he started off in a hurry. It was almost as if he was making up for lost time after Haseebullah Khan’s brief tortured stay at the crease resulted in a 12-ball duck, the young wicketkeeper-batter getting more desperate with each ball before ultimately smearing one straight to mid-on. Babar Azam’s arrival lifted the crowd’s spirits while Zaman took care of the run-scoring, freeing his arms and finding the gaps either side of the wicket with regularity in the powerplay. Babar, meanwhile, looked like a man with rediscovered confidence, timing the ball beautifully as Pakistan cruised through the first 15 overs.
Fakhar Zaman scored a rapid fifty•AFP/Getty Images
Zaman took on Jeffrey Vandersay, who was playing his first game this series, but the legspinner dragged his side back into the contest. After smacking him for his second boundary, Zaman went after Vandersay again, only for Kamindu Mendis to take a spectacular catch diving forward in the deep. Shortly after, he did for Babar with a googly that beat the batter all ends up, sneaking through the gate and making a mess of his stumps.
With their tails up, it was the first time since the opening powerplay in the game that Sri Lanka placed any kind of pressure on Pakistan. Vandersay beat Agha with a lovely legbreak that drifted in and then ripped away to trap him in front, and suddenly, the 97 runs Pakistan still needed seemed very far away.
But Rizwan and Hussain Talat hunkered down. For a while, run-scoring seemed a secondary thought; the next ten overs produced just 32 runs. But most importantly, Sri Lanka were being kept out of the wickets column, and with the asking rate far too modest to have any impact on the game, Pakistan, bit by bit, dragged themselves towards the finish line.
It left the last hour of the game in a holding pattern where the outcome was all but certain, but Talat and Rizwan were in no hurry to put Sri Lanka out of their misery. Rizwan coasted towards his half-century while Talat saw an opportunity to amass a few more runs in what has been a successful series for him. In the 43rd over, Maheesh Theekshana had Talat lbw but the batter got the decision overturned as the ball-tracking showed the ball bouncing over the stumps. It just about summed up Sri Lanka’s stuttering series in the Rawalpindi cold before the hosts finally limped over the finish line.
Danyal Rasool is ESPNcricinfo’s Pakistan correspondent. @Danny61000
