Legends of Sports

Sri Lanka threw their wickets away through reckless shots, conceded 17 runs through wides and about 10 through misfields, Thisara Perera and Angelo Mathews have earned from the school they shared - still won by a whopping 37 runs. It was an everyday night of cricket with most of the wickets owing neither to the bowling nor the pitch, but many will argue it's a trait that can be credited to T20 cricket in general because of the depression of a wicket.

Perera and Mathews, though, stood out. Perera first scored a two-a-ball 32 to give Sri Lanka a fighting chance from 89 for 7. Mathews then bowled a difficult spell of out swing for eight runs and two wickets. The two came together when Perera flew at third man to catch Shoaib Malik off the bowling of Mathews. Perera and Mathews were the highlight of the night, which featured a lot of mysterious cricket otherwise.

The others didn't find fluency at all as Pakistan confused all by not sending Umar Akmal in before No. 6. Ahmed Shehzad played a long innings, but his strike-rate of fewer than 100 could have worked if other batsmen had hung around. Mathews got Khalid Latif and Malik, and at 46 for 4 in the 10th over, Akmal felt grateful to hit out. Except it's not easy when Malinga is bowling. A top edge ended it for Akmal, and it was all over bar Shahid Afridi.