| Home -> Cricket | | Pakistan snatch thrilling win over Sri Lanka
Jaipur :  Pakistan showed no signs of being ruffled by the sensational dope scandal as they kept their composure in the dying stages to snatch a thrilling four-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in a Group-B encounter of the Champions Trophy here tonight.
After restricting the islanders to 253, the Pakistanis relied on Shoaib Malik (46 not out) and Abdul razzak (38 not out) to see the team through the tense final overs for a creditable victory with 11 balls to spare at the Sawai Mansingh stadium.
The Pakistanis, playing their opening match just a day after their two pace spearheads Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were withdrawn from the tournament after testing positive for a banned drug, did not allow the unsavoury episode to unsettle them as they collected two full points.
Apart from Malik and Razzak, opener Imran Farhat (53) and Mohammad Yousuf (49) were the other notable contributors in the floodlit contest which went the whole distance unlike most of the other games in the high-profile tournament so far.
Razzak lifted Dilhara Fernando for a six straight over his head to bring the victory in style, sending the Pakistani dressing room into a frenzy.
Electing to bat, the Sri Lankans had themselves to blame for not putting up a bigger total on the board as their top five batsmen got the starts but could not make them count.
Sanath Jayasuriya (48), Upul Tharanga (38), Mahela Jayawardene (31) Kumar Sangakkara (39) and Marvan Atapattu (36) managed to get decent scores but it was not enough. The failure of the lower order batsmen compounded their misery.
| | PTI |
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