The ODI series now shift to Sri Lanka's third World Cup venue - the R Premadasa Stadium. It's tough to predict how the third ODI will pan out: almost nothing seem to go Sri Lanka's way in the first one-dayer when they hobble to 135 for 8, but two days later, and on the same pitch, their batting was back to near its best and they piled up a match-winning score.
One thing that didn't change for Pakistan over the two matches was the terrible fielding. Catches were kindly put down in the first ODI and a number of run-out chances were spurned in the second. While Pakistan were mainly unpunished by the mistakes in the field in the first game, Tillakaratne Dilshan made the most of his pardon in the second game, going on to make an unbeaten century.
After Dilshan pressed Sri Lanka to a big total, the lack of depth in Pakistan's batting was shown up. Younis Khan has been out of sorts in recent matches, and the unpredictable Shahid Afridi comes in at No. 6 - one position higher than his usual slot in recent years - putting abundance of pressure on the remaining four batsmen. Sarfraz Ahmed played a crucial hand in the Asia Cup final, but is yet to convince as a long-term No. 7.
One thing that didn't change for Pakistan over the two matches was the terrible fielding. Catches were kindly put down in the first ODI and a number of run-out chances were spurned in the second. While Pakistan were mainly unpunished by the mistakes in the field in the first game, Tillakaratne Dilshan made the most of his pardon in the second game, going on to make an unbeaten century.
After Dilshan pressed Sri Lanka to a big total, the lack of depth in Pakistan's batting was shown up. Younis Khan has been out of sorts in recent matches, and the unpredictable Shahid Afridi comes in at No. 6 - one position higher than his usual slot in recent years - putting abundance of pressure on the remaining four batsmen. Sarfraz Ahmed played a crucial hand in the Asia Cup final, but is yet to convince as a long-term No. 7.
0 comments:
Post a Comment