Hambantota, Jun 3: Pakistan beat Sri Lanka in Hambantota on Sunday to win the second Twenty20 international by 23 runs and square the two-match series.
Earlier, Shahid Afridi smashed an unbeaten 52 off 33 balls to help Pakistan score a competitive 122-6 in the second and final Twenty20 international.
Pakistan's old woes continued in their previous encounter as their new T20 skipper Mohammad Hafeez scored a duck in his first match as captain while the rest of the batting collapsed soon after. The batsmen will need to play a tighter game and rotate the strike more often as they played out 60 dot balls in their innings and crawled to 23 during the powerplay overs in the first T20I.
"We had our moments but couldn't capitalise on them. Tanvir was brilliant and the spinners did the job. I feel we have to work and come hard in the next game,” said Mohammad Hafeez looking back at the loss.
On the other hand a crumbling Sri Lanka was revived by a gritty knock by Lahiru Thirimanne and some aggressive batting by Thisara Perera in their last match. Much will be expected from their seasoned campaigners Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Both teams will be cautious ahead of the second match looking at the tough wicket they played in their previous encounter. "It was a challenging wicket and we did not assess it well when we batted," said Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene.
After a thumping win, Sri Lanka chose to stay away from practice on Saturday, while the Pakistan team trained in the evening. The match is expected to draw better crowds on Sunday as Monday is a public holiday in Sri Lanka.
