Shahid Afridi another 50 mange Pakistan to repeat the T20 performance against Sri Lanka. Afridi scored third consecutive half century to contribute a defendable total of 172. Pakistan disciplined attack did not provide any room to Sri Lankan batsman to even kiss the total. A good knocks from Imran Nazir, Omer Akmal and Abdurrazaq gave confidence to the team to defend the total easily. The series although was a nightmare in which Pakistan lost test and one day series but last two ODI and maiden T20 victory give Pakistan cricket a relief.
A sell-out crowd of 35,000 at the overflowing Premadasa stadium watched the first T20 match between the two teams since the World Twenty20 final in England in June, when Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets.
The result was the same as seamer Rana Naved and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal picked up three wickets each to stun the hosts.
Sri Lanka lost wickets at regular intervals with skipper Kumar Sangakkara the only batsman to offer resistance against the fired-up Pakistanis with 38 off 31 balls.
Afridi, who was man of the match in both the semi-final and final at the Worlds, once again won the award as Pakistan ended an otherwise dismal tour of Sri Lanka on a winning note.
Pakistan had lost the preceding Test series 2-0 and conceded the one-dayers by a 2-3 margin during the six-week tour.
Afridi hit two sixes and four boundaries after taking over the Twenty20 team from Test and one-day skipper Younus Khan, who has retired from the shortest format of the game.
“I told the boys before the match that we were world champions and so we should go out there and play like champions,” the 29-year-old Afridi said.
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