Pakistan wrap up easy victory in Dubai

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Cricket365
October 29, 2011

Pakistan romped to a nine-wicket victory over Sri Lanka to clinch the second Test inside four days and claim a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Having dominated the series so far, Pakistan finally made it count for something as they bowled Sri Lanka out for 257 before Mohammad Hafeez and Azhar Ali notched up the 94 runs required to complete the win.

It was all the more impressive given that the pitch was not the most helpful, and the ease with which Pakistan completed the victory showed the gulf between the two sides in the series so far.

Sri Lanka resumed on 88 for one at the start of the day – still 76 runs adrift but in with a decent chance of taking the game deep into the fifth day.

Instead they were all out ten overs after the tea break, and could only grasp the wicket of Taufeeq Umar – bowled by Rangana Herath – before Hafeez (59 not out) and Ali (29 not out) breezed home in the fading light.

Angelo Mathews and Dammika Prasad had held up the Pakistan attack with a 56-run stand either side of the tea break, but with the spine of the Sri Lankan batting having been broken and with so much time left in the game, the partnership was in some ways just prolonging the inevitable.

After a quiet start to the day, Abdur Rehman made the crucial breakthrough when he trapped Kumar Sangakkara lbw with the last ball of the fourth over of day four.

With Sri Lanka's in-form man gone for 30, Misbah-ul-Haq brought Saeed Ajmal into the attack to target Mahela Jayawardene, and the ploy soon worked as the offspinner rattled the right-hander's stumps.

Tillakaratne Dilshan continued his miserable tour with the bat as he was trapped lbw by Junaid Khan, but Tharanga Paranavitana finally found stability at the other end as Mathews arrived at the crease.

Paranavitana had gone to fifty early in the day, and continued his stoic resistance until the eighth over after lunch when he nicked Ajmal to slip, where Younis Khan made no mistake. The left-hander had batted a mammoth 239 deliveries for his 72, and his dismissal was seen as the last key breakthrough for Pakistan.

That wasn't quite the case as Mathews and Prasad frustrated the bowlers for almost an hour, but as soon as Prasad was bowled by Rehman the floodgates opened and Ajmal went on to claim his fourth five-wicket haul.

Mathews was left unbeaten on 52, and Pakistan were left with a simple task to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.