Sri Lanka proves form book wrong
By A. C. de Silva
ASIA CUP: The year 1986 was a successful one in the early part for
Sri Lanka. Though it was somewhat hard to believe, it was true that Sri
Lanka proved the form book wrong and beat Pakistan by five wickets in
the final of the Asia Cup limited-overs cricket tournament at the SSC
grounds.
Beaten by Pakistan in the one-day series 2-0 and by 81 runs in the
preliminary round match in this tournament, this win came like a bolt
from the blue.
It was something like a carnival atmosphere with all Sri Lanka in
high spirit and the then President J. R. Jayewardene who was the chief
guest at the match also spotted a happy look.
This was Sri Lanka’s first victory in a major international
tournament. Sri Lanka had won the ICC trophy for Associate Members in
1979, the qualifying tournament for the World Cup competition. Pakistan
was somewhat unfortunate to lose its skipper Imran Khan at a time when
his services were required.
When Sri Lanka went into bat, Imran Khan limped off the field and
never bowled a single ball. The role of the fifth bowler in the Pakistan
team was shared by Mudassar Nazar and Salim Malik and these two proved
expensive giving away 68 runs in the 11 overs bowled between them.
Javed Miandad, the naughty boy in the minds of the Sri Lankan
spectators for his misdeeds in the Second Test, was given a hostile
reception when he came to bat. He was greeted with “cat calls” and was
booed all the way to the wicket.
Miandad would surely have something up his mind to silence the
vociferous Sri Lankan spectators and he came through well with a
courageous display of attacking batting and had the crowd cheering him
later on.
Miandad made one-third of his team’s score and his 67 off 100 balls
contained four boundaries. From 100 for 5 wickets in 36 overs, the
Pakistan score went to 191 for 9 wickets in 45 overs.
The last nine overs in the Pakistan innings produced 91 runs and of
these runs, first came through a fine seventh wicket partnership of 42
runs between Miandad and Abdul Qadir, who used the long handle to good
purpose in making 30 off 19 balls.
Earlier, Miandad with Salim Malik (23) put on 40 runs in eight overs
for the fifth wicket.
Then with Manzoor Elahi (27), Miandad added 65 runs for the sixth
wicket. Elahi’s knock of 27 runs came off 50 balls.
Sri Lanka’s young medium-pace bowler Kaushiek Amalean took four for
46. Sri Lanka’s fielding reached a new high in this match with young
Roshan Mahanama being outstanding in the cover region.
Two half-centuries by Aravinda de Silva (52) and Arjuna Ranatunga
(57) whose 97-run fourth wicket partnership off 16.1 overs paved the way
for victory.
PAKISTAN
Mudassar Nazar b de Mel 2
Moshin Khan run out 7
Rameez Raja c Mahanama b Amalean 2
Javed Miandad c Ratnayake b Amalean 67
Imran Khan lbw b Ratnayake 17
Salim Malik c and b Anurasiri 23
Munzoor Elahi b Amalean 27
Abdul Qadir c de Mel b Ratnayake 30
Wasim Akram c Gurusinha b Amalean 5
Zulqarnain not out 1
EXTRAS: (lb-4, nb-2, w-4) 10
TOTAL: (for 9 wkts off 45 overs in 210 minutes) 191
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-7, 2-10, 3-24, 4-42, 5-72, 6-137, 7-179, 8-185, 9-191.
BOWLING: Asantha de Mel 9-2-21-1, Kaushik Amalean 9-1-46-4,
Ravi Ratnayake 8-0-50-2, Arjuna Ranatunga 9-1-27-0,
S. Don Anurasiri 9-0-24-1, Aravinda de Silva 1-0-19-0.
SRI LANKA
Brendon Kuruppu c Malik b Qadir 30
Roshan Mahanama c Qadir b Elahi 21
Asanka Gurusinha c Zulqarnain b Qadir 4
Aravinda de Silva c (sub) Tauseef Ahmed b Nazar 52
Arjuna Ranatunga c Moshin Khan b Qadir 57
Duleep Mendis not out 22
Roy Dias not out 0
EXTRAS: 9
TOTAL (for 5 wkts in 42.2 overs in 210 minutes) 195
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-40, 2-59, 3-64, 4-161, 5-191.
BOWLING: Wasim Akram 7.2-2-22-0, Zakir Khan 6-0-36-0,
Manzor Elahi 9-0-30-1, Abdul Qadir 9-0-32-3, Mudassar Nazar 8-0-49-1,
Salim Malik 3-0-19-0.
Man of the match: Javed Miandad (Pakistan)
Man of the series: Arjuna Ranatunga (Sri Lanka) |
